1- Korean Dream Team
2- Texacali
3- The Centurions
I picked the Korean Dream Teamā¦because you expect a Dream Team to do pretty well. Theyāve kept a pretty low profile (I guess this is an English forum after all) so I reckon theyāll be the dark horse in the race. They will come out of nowhere to take out all the other teams.
Texacali for second place. Because I like the name
And Centurions for third. I believe I read somewhere that they had more years of unicycling experience than all the other teams combined.
Of the teams other than mine (about which I obviously canāt comment!)
Teams that I know are going to be very fast because Iāve ridden with most of them:
Team NZUNI
Lost Wheelers
Teams I think may be very fast looking at how fast the riders I know in the teams are:
Smile
Yellow Line Fever
Texicali
Team Unicycle.com
Totally Doable
Most of the other teams I have very little idea about speedwise.
Iāve ridden with quite a number of riders hereā¦on various Unitours and at Unicon. I reckon Team NZUNI is in with a chance
But at the risk of jinxing my team, here are the top five excluding Team NZUNI.
Team Smile
Lost Wheelers
Yellow Line Fever
Totally Doable
Hans Islanders
Team Smile has 24hr Record Holder Sam Wakeling riding. Heās not only fast over ultra-distance, his cruising speed by all accounts is up there with Roger Davies, who is one of the fastest people Iāve ridden with. They lose the old master yoda but gain youthful strength in Chuck Edwall. Yes, the guy who destroyed a Schlumpf hub with his thighs. From their postings, and previous results, this team should easily average 25km/hr throughout the whole race. Iāve not ridden with Des but I believe heās a bit of an animal at the Mountain Mayhem. This is the team to watch.
Lost Wheelers are all seasoned riders at long distance events like the 24hr Mountain-Mayhem. I havenāt looked back at the results, but from memory, these guys should be hot on the tails of Team Smile. I have only ridden with Paul but if Joe Marshall thinks this is a team to watch, they probably are.
We head over the California for our next ranked team. The father and son combination of Nathan and Beau Hoover will be very strong indeed. These guys ride MUni and Coker more than anyone else I know, and same with Unitouring. Their strengths will be on the big climbs. Scott Cooper can really power up them, as can Beau and Nathan.
Totally Doable getās a rating in here because of their postings on RSU regarding team practice with Yellow Line Fever. I have only ridden with Mike, but this team is fully into their GUniās. Expect them to give Yellow Line Fever a run for their money, and maybe even come out on top on the flatter stages.
Hans Islanders are in with a pretty decent chance coming in the top 5. Tom Olson can climb like a goat. On the Laos Unitour, Tom and Jesper both from Denmark were leading most of the riders up every climb. Singe Jenson is the Womens Marathon World Champ, and would easily beat 3/4 of all the guys out there. The only unknown for me is Todd Sankeyā¦Iāve not ridden with him or seen any results.
Texacali should also be another contender for the top 5. Iāve put them here in 6 because I have only ridden with Corbin. I know AJ did the MUT, so there should be quite a bit of touring experience as Corbin was on Uninam. I rate Corbin as one of the top riders at RTL, especially if he is as fast on the 36" Sclumpf as he says he is. This guy can really spin! Not really seen him climb but heās small and light so I expect that heād fly up the climbs. He can certainly descend at speed. I donāt know Kevin Chang, but I expect he would be pretty similar in strengths to the other two riders.
Overall, I think Team 3, 4, 5, and 6 are pretty equal. I reckon Team Smile will be streets ahead of everyone else, with Lost Wheelers close behind.
Other teams I expect in the top 10 include: Team Unicycle.com, Team Venus, The Goonies, and German Speeders. I donāt know enough about the other teams but I expect there will be quite a few surprises.
Itās a pity we donāt have any Japanese riders. I can think of several combinations that could quite easily win it, especially if it was a flat race. Also missing is Hour Record Holder and 10km World Champ Patrick Schmid, and Juniour Marathon Champ Dustin Schaap. Weāre going to miss you!
Would be interesting to see the final result in June.
Thanks for those team reviews. It reminds me how many contenders there are - RTL is going to be infested with fast riders. I think Ken (GizmoDuck) shouldnāt be so modest, and that NZUni is a favorite for a top three placing here.
Like a couple others have mentioned, itās the folks with hardcore endurance whoāll come out on top. Uni tours and 24-hr race experience are good indicators. Also, donāt count out older riders or female riders, or older female riders, as youthful, testosterone-full males donāt typically dominate the toughest endurance sports.
Another field-leveling factor may come into play, too, and thatās bad weather. If Mother Nature is cranky that week, wind and cold and rain could take some teams down a notch or two, giving a better chance to the riders whoāve trained in inclement conditions. Geared unis will lose some of their advantage in that case, too.
While my team āPersonal Rollercoasterā is a long shot for the podium, we have a decent shot at top ten in RTL. Weāve all done 24 hr muni races, and Roland and I have a lot of big mountain-climb races under our collective belt.
In fact, weāre muniāing in 3 days in another 24 hr MTB race, the āLifestyles of the Rich and Famousā. My whole team (Vincelemay, rolandisimo, steveyo), plus another RTL rider, Perry from Team Balance (capuni), comprise a 4-muni team in this weekendās race. At the very least, it will be huge fun, and definitely an awesome workout a month before the ābig eventā.
What Gizmoduck said, for sure, but there are other strong riders in the mix, as well as a ton of unknowns, from whom we really donāt know what to expect. The Koreans only qualified to qualify based on speed among their fellow Korean riders. Some ānewā riders may have bike racing or other athletic backgrounds helping them out.
Thatās very kind of you. The Centurions have 101 years of riding experience between the three of us. Weāre not slow either. Our oldest member, Dave White, has won the 10k race at NAUCC (Memphis, 2006) He beat everybody, including Irene! David Stone is famous, among other things, for Coker commuting in New York City (eating sushi while talking on the cell phone while riding). Iām a past world champion of racing, but those were all short races. Until Unicon XIII, the longest unicycle race Iād been in was 9 miles (which I won the first time, and tied with Andy Cotter and Dustin Kelm the second time). Who knows how weāll do?
Kudos for the organizers (Nathan Hoover, Andy Cotter and the guys in NS) for inventing an event where there are no obvious dominant teams. The whole thing is just so huge and unprecedented, itāll be an honor to be part of it.
Iāll comment for you then. Team Goonies looks awesome.
Team NZuni will win first place. That was my original prediction, but now that I found out that Sam will be on the same team as Chuck (geared 36) I am starting to wonder how it will work out.
I am hoping that Team Goonies finishes top 10, but it is going to be tough to finish in the top third of the teams since so many of the teams look strong.
Weāve done some time trials with different unicycles. A geared 36, a geared 29er, and a single-speed 36er. We consistently found that the rider was far more important than the cycle.
Thereās no amount of money you can put into a unicycle to make you a fit and fast unicyclist. Between a geared unicycle and an ungeared one, my money is on the one with the stronger rider.
From my experience, thatās not the case. I think geared unicycles have an advantage but only in certain scenarios, and definitely not a ācrazyā one.
Geared-unicycles also have liabilities. Theyāre heavier, have some energy loss, and time lost trying to shift results in being passed.
I wonder why you think so. Geared unicycles do great on the flat and downhill, but the efficiency drops off quickly at the first sign of an upslope. RTL is not flat.
Geared or ungeared, you do the same amount of working moving from point A to point B. The guni may go faster, but theyāll be more tired after a given amount of time riding, too. This race is about speed, but also, hugely, about endurance.
Wow, this is a great thread. I have to say though, with 6 races over 5 days totaling 800km, a lot can happen, anything really. For my part, I donāt care what place we come in. We may get destroyed by the fitter teams (Smile) or the geared teams (Totally Doable, Texacali) or the plain amazing teams like NZUNI or the unknown Korea Dream Team. I know that 800km is going to seem mighty long while weāre actually racing, but still, I canāt wait to give it a try.
Maybe the thinking is the geared riders will be so far ahead of the fixies, that they wonāt lose much time even if they have to quickly dismount to change back to 1:1 mode. Of course, this might get really impractical if thereās lots of ups and downs in close proximity!
My picks (in no particular order)
Smile
The Goonies
Texacali
Yellow Line Fever
NZUNI
Maybe āManly Legsā except they have a rider thatās a wimp. (inside joke!)
Special mention for Masticating bunnies from Hell, I donāt know any of their riders, but I love their name.
Then again, there are so many people that I donāt know that itās hard to tell how this will turn out!
I think at the back of the race, it will be about endurance, at the front, much more about speed, as everyone at the front will have the endurance to keep the pace up.
Whoever wins, itās likely to be a team of people for whom 40 miles a day is a short ride, who are able to spin flat out for that kind of distance. There are 2 riders out there whoāve done 24 hour rides greater than the roughly 200 mile total distance theyāll be riding in RTL, and I expect most of the good riders will have done 100 mile day rides, back to back 60 mile days etc.
I think the hillyness of RTL may help the geared 36 riders, because they have a real advantage on the downhills as they donāt have to spin too fast. Geared 29ers I donāt think have a massive advantage or disadvantage compared to a 36", Iām just riding mine because itās more convenient to travel with and a bit less tiring to ride. I doubt Iāll shift often except on absolutely massive hills.
The hillyness may also give an advantage to people from hilly areas, whereas those from flatter areas are having to do a lot of hill training at the moment.
One thing that might be on the side of us Brits is the weather. Nova Scotia - famous for rain, twice as much rain as London, weāll be right at home if it rains. Whereas I can see the S. Californian teams all disintegrating as this inexplicable wet stuff comes out of the sky.
Hey guys, I wouldnāt go placing bets on everybody quite just yet!
Personally, I definitely know Iāve got a long way to go to be totally comfortable on my geared 36, now that I have it back. I had a pretty nasty geared up UPD today that was kind of a wakeup call to the fact that i need to be careful and take it slow!
Also re: geared vs. ungearedā¦ Iām actually going to try to bring my ungeared Nimbus 36 for the crit on Wednesday, because of how much trouble I seem to have accelerating and decelerating with my KH/Schlumpf 36. I can hold way better flat, straight speeds while geared up, but even the teensiest irregularities seem to really take it out of me momentarily, and itās tough to regain my lost speed. I almost think the best uni I could ride would be a 48" or 54" bigwheelā¦ with a pneumatic tire 23mm wide (dreams!)
There are tons of really strong riders out here, and itās seriously going to be awesome to see them all in the same place. I canāt wait to meet you all!
I donāt really think Smile or any other team will be streets ahead of anybody, actually. This is going to be a heck of a race, and whoever wins wonāt do it without fighting for it!
Iām always really optimistic, but when it comes down to it, nobody can really know anything.
and
+1 on both of those, John. I couldnāt have said it better.
Oh, and I forget who it was expressing all the wonder and awe about Corbinās ability to seriously kick ass on his 36ā¦ but yeah, he can definitely ride as fast as he says he can! Texacali is going to be fast, if only because of Corbin, and if they have any other fast guysā¦ theyāre going to be a force to be reckoned with!
