Joe Marshall and myself have now made it on to Page 3 of the Nottingham Evening Post.;
The text is;
Cycling across Canada on two wheels would test any biker to the limit.
But two Notts men are determined to try the 500-mile cold trek on just the one.
Joe Marshall, 29, from Beeston, and his pal Spencer Owen, 32, from Bramcote, will attempt the Ride the Lobster challenge this June.
It will see them ride the length of Nova Scotia in just five days, at speeds of up 15mph.
It is dubbed the unicycle equivalent of the Tour de France and is named after the shape of Nova Scotia - which almost forms one of two ‘claws’ on the east coast of Canada.
Joe, a University of Nottingham student, and Spencer, an IT worker, are currently in the middle of a gruelling training regime to get them ready for the 100-mile-a-day ride.
Both are long-time unicycle fans, using the single-wheeled bikes as their preferred mode of transport.
Joe, 29, fell in love with the unicycle when he was living in London.
“I got into unicycling originally just because I love circus stuff, then I discovered there were people riding them down mountains and things,” he said.
"I’ve not done much ‘circus’ unicycling.
“But when I lived in London, I only had a tiny flat so I couldn’t fit a bike in there, so I used my unicycle instead. It turned out to be more practical.”
The pair, along with American James Amon, have dubbed their team The Goonies.
They will be supported by Joe’s wife, law PhD student Penny Munro. She is not a unicyclist but will be going along to help co-ordinate their route.
“She’s quite supportive of my stupid ideas,” Joe said. "I unicycled in New Zealand last year and we went down a field just after the first snow of the season and that was pretty tough.
"It was rocky, downhill and steep.
"I do ride normal bikes as well, it’s just a bit more of a challenge on a unicycle.
“We’re riding about 50 to 60 miles a week at the moment,” Joe explained. "Last weekend, we had a big training weekend with a whole bunch of people from around the country.
"We did a big ride from Beeston to Cromford in the Peak District and back.
"The hardest thing about Ride the Lobster is probably going to be going up against the fastest riders in the world.
"We all know we can ride the distance at a comfortable speed. But the speed will have to be about 15mph or so to keep up which might be tough.
"We’ve got to do it in five days, we’re sure we can do that.
"We’re certainly thinking we’ll be in the middle of the pack as far as places go, but we’re training hard to do as well as we can.
"The unicycles we use have got big wheels, which makes them faster and more stable.
“Once you’ve learned to ride a unicycle they’re quite stable really. It’s just like riding a bike.”
The challenge runs from June 16 to 20.
A spokesman for the organisers said: "Ride the Lobster is a unique, international unicycle race, unlike any other ever held.
"It’s an ultra-marathon for the unicycling community.
“The distance will be 800km in stages, over five days, and, with over 25 teams of three riders each from around the world competing for at least (10,000 Canadian dollars) in prize money; it will be one event you won’t want to miss.”
All the teams taking part in Ride the Lobster will be tracked and mapped by global positioning satellites, and their positions in the race will be available in almost real-time via the internet.
Visit www.ridethelobster.com for more details
