Well, the official results aren’t up yet, so I won’t comment at all on that…
However, for some comic relief till that time, check out this video I took at 40km’s (approx) into the 60km race.
This Video shows me passing 4 bikers…one was on a SantaCruz Superlight ($3000cdn+) They certainly ‘looked’ like mountainbikers!
You’ll not only note how fast I (on a unicycle), blow by them (on bikes) but due to some poor race logistics, Me and another Cokeur were 2 of about 15 who’s bike trailer never showed up at the startline. They had another start for us about 30 mins later.
A subpar start though, no mass start, and all the spectators were gone. Me and Joel were the last people for about 5km’s, then, we continued to pass more and more people…and when you start dead last (on unicycles), passing people (on bikes) is awesome!
I’m curious about your time-result for a 60km. You looked to be spinning good!
Yeah! I just did a 70+km ride this afternoon, in a little more than 5 hours. I passed a lot of tourists, and two road bikers. OK…they were probably 40 years old… but it was so funny to see the look of their faces when they noticed the Big wheel!!
You can picture me riding along, thinking to myself…how many bikes am I going to see with broken chains, brakes, drive train components, etc…that as unicyclists, we don’t need to worry about. I figured those type of break downs were my main source of not finishing last
After I passed my first cyclist (I started last, remember) that was about 5km’s into it.
The very next biker I saw was walking along side his bike, holding his left crank arm and pedal in his hand, because it’s crank got loose and fell off!
Wow, those are pretty good times for a long ride, especially given it’s a proper time including stops and the like. Did you go at a pretty constant speed or did you find yourself slowing towards the end?
Any of you have thoughts on how the micro-crank 29er compares to the coker?
I kept a very constant speed for about 40-45km (the speed you see me riding in the video clip was about how steady i was going)
Nearing the last section, The bottoms of my quads were burning, and if I were to stand up and get my legs near locked position…they would lock into place and shoot pain up my entire legs…because they were both like that. I had to stop and strech out my quads…not really caring too much on my time at that point! (although, i figured the more stretching I got done, the better it would help my time anyways)After I got that settled out, I was pretty tired…those last 10-15 km’s were poor (in relation to the first ones)
There were several washed out parts (it rained HEAVILY immediately before the race) (like, 100 m of the trail was complete soup…deep enough that parts of it looked smooth!)
I think in this type of race, it comes down to rider ability…and by ability I mean preference of unicycle, and how in tune you are with the strengths and weakness of each ride. I would make up time on the flat, where he would most likey make up time on the off road. This is a race where most people were on mountain bikes, there were some cyclocross bikes, there were even road bikes who would run through the off road parts. There were several large climbs, some road, some trail…with the last 500 meters or so being the longest, steepest hill of the race. With the finish line at the very top
Of course, there is the matter of rider condition as well…It’s not really an accurate test, we are completely different people
That was a cool video. It’s always nice when I pass the rare bike as well. Mine is during commuting, so most of the people out there are doing pretty good speeds.
From your video I can see you have a KH seat, and big quads.
OK…they were probably 40 years old… but it was so funny to see the look of their faces when they noticed the Big wheel!!
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