Follow up
Just to follow up on my announcement that a couple mountain unicyclists were planning to invade the Dirty Spokes, 12 Hours of Fort Yargo (in Winder, Georgia U.S.A.). We’ll my friend Paul Foster and I (Robert Youngren), did indeed show up and I think we represented our sport quite well amongst the over 350 other mountain bikers! The course consisted of 12 mile loops with a few challenging places but for the most part was very rideable and forgivable and a great place to really pack the mileage on. Paul managed 5 loops inside the 12 hour time limit and I managed 4. So with the “parade lap” added at the begining (to thin the field out) I got in 50 miles in about 9 1/2 hours and Paul got the metric century (100k) in around 11h 16m. I was pretty pleased with myself as my goal was 50 miles and this was about 30 miles further than I’d ever ridden a unicycle (especially off road!). And interestingly enough, we were far from finishing last, especially when you take into account there was a concurrent 6 hour race as well and our splits at that point still put us ahead of several mtn bikers! You can checkout the results at:
http://www.dirtyspokes.com/forms/DS-Results-2007.pdf
I’m sure there will be pictures posted on that website soon as this was a fairly large event and there were a number of flashing cameras capturing these 1 wheeled oddities!
I will say that without exception every mtn biker that passed me was extremely supportive and respectful. No jeering from this crowd (before the start there was some, but once they saw we were for real I think we won their respect)!
I know it is a long loop, but it is a relatively “fast” course. Our first “long” loop was just under 2 hours, probably ~13 miles. Like I said there is a 6 hour option and team divisions as well. It is a great muni course if mileage is the goal. The race director said if we can increase our numbers next year he’ll have a seperate uni division! So consider it…
See you out there!
MuniSano