Just found out yesterday that the Warwick unicycle races are on again this year, next Sunday!
The format is the same as the last two years, with a 2k ‘Fun Race’ earlier in the day (starting at 12:35) and a 10k ‘Big Wheel Race’ later on (starting at 3:55pm). The details can be found at www.uniquest.co.uk.
Hopefully there will still be a decent turnout for the races despite the short notice!
Unfortunately I’m double booked for next weekend so won’t be there this year. Hope it’s a good’un though, and if all goes well, I should be along next year.
STM
We’ll definitely be there, Danny is also planning to enter the big wheel race again.
Keith
Bump. There must be some others who are going to this event? If you are post cos at this rate it looks like there will be hardly anyone there! That would suck for the race this year and also might make it less likely that the event organisers will want to keep the unicycle races as part of the cycling day in the future.
If you haven’t been before and have a coker then you should definitely think about going, even if you aren’t bothered about racing it’s great riding around the city centre circuit on closed roads!
Good luck for the race, but I won’t be there.
The honest reason is I can’t be arsed to spend the whole day driving up there and back for a few minutes of riding, in a race I’ll do really badly at (I’m not a good speedster on a unicycle). If it was more local to me or I happened to be in the area at the time then I’d probably give it a go.
Have fun 
Rob
I think that might be a reason not to come for quite a few other people too, despite it being in the Midlands there don’t seem to be many coker riders near to Warwick, so the amount of driving compared to riding is quite a lot!
It takes me about two hours each way I think, I don’t care though cos riding fast on the road is pretty much my favourite thing to do on a uni! Also since I’m rarely very fit (last year being an exception), a 10k race is just right for me 
Maybe I’ll ask the organiser if next year the unicyclists can do 40k, like the elite cyclists do, haha!
Had a good afternoon at the race this afternoon, I got there just in time to see the fun race, which had a decent number of riders and was won by Danny Griffiths despite him being the smallest person in the race!
There were originally only 3 riders registered for the Coker race, with me being the only adult! Luckily John the organiser managed to persuade four others (two youngsters and two adults) to ride at the last minute, making a reasonably respectable field of seven. I was riding one of the two 36ers in the race, and Tim, who was riding the other one, hadn’t ever ridden one before today! He did really well though and only fell off once when some fool wandered out in front of him.
Despite being pretty out of shape I thought I’d see how fast I could go compared to last year, so pushed myself pretty hard and finished in about 21 minutes, and as with both of the previous times I’ve done the race felt very sick afterwards! The results were me in first, Danny second, Robin third, however once it was split into under-16s and over-21s it was Danny, Toni and Elliot who won the prizes in the former, and me, Robin and Tim in the latter. It was slightly rough on the boy who came last as he ended up being the only one not to win a trophy, but he still did really well considering he was on a 24" and only learnt to ride a few months ago!
Well done to Danny for winning the fun race and coming second overall in the coker race! Also cheers to everyone who entered at the last minute, you saved the day as it would have been rubbish to only have three riders in the race! Next year I’ll try to find out early in the summer if/when the races are on, and post the details as far in advance as possible, so that hopefully more riders can come, as I think it’s awesome that there is a unicycle category in this pretty major cycling event!
Oh and there’s a separate thread with some photos from the race here:
warwick race few pics.
Thanks for the write-up. Sounds like it could have gone worse, but still not a great turn out. Sorry I couldn’t be there, but hopefully next year I will be. And with a bit of publicity, some nagging and bribery, we might be able to get a decent amount of riders. I’m sure there are at least 20 36"/29" riders within travelling distance that we can coerce in to going. That’d make a great sight for the spectators too.
STM
Well done on winning again Liam. 14mph doesn’t sound too silly quick… perhaps I wouldn’t have embarassed myself so much after all (I tend to average just over 13mph if I’m trying to be quick over any distance). I thought you were much faster than me on top speed though - is it a really tight course where you can’t really get up to speed?
Rob
There are a lot of corners, and only 1 decent long strait - but that is slightly up hill. It takes a couple of laps or so to work out the best line in to the corners so that you don’t lose too much speed, but after that it should all be clear for a pretty good time. 14mph sounds like a pretty good average to me though.
STM
That’s what I guessed. Liam is usually quite a bit faster than me - I reckon I could have him on endurance and probably climbing, but when it comes down to pure speed he’ll leave me behind. I just haven’t got the guts to go that fast on a unicycle.
Rob
Cheers:) It is a pretty tight course, but that didn’t really affect my speed, partly because I’ve done the race three times now so I’m used to the course, but mostly because I hadn’t trained and was going just slow enough to be able to get round the corners and over the speed bump without really slowing down.
You would be fine to do the race Rob, I reckon you’d be able to get a faster average than 13mph because it’s such a short race, and if you average 13mph on longer rides then you must go a bit faster than that at some point.
Yeah it would be great if we could have more riders next year, like there were two years ago and the year before that. I’m sure it would help if more people knew about it further in advance, and also I thought maybe next year I could try to organise a longer coker or muni ride somewhere nearby on the Saturday, so it would be more worth making the journey for for people who live further away.
Respect
I would like to give major respect to everyone in the “fun” race. Firstly, yes, it was fun, but I was trying REALLY very hard! And I hurt afterwards! So special respect to:
Danny (#43)… just amazing… 2nd in the big wheel too! (Roger, look out!)
Tim (#41) for taking on 10k first time out on a coker (and judging by the pics, giving us all a head start in the fun race!)
#53 (Robin? Sorry, if I’ve got your name wrong) for going so fast on such a tiny wheel
#44 (our lone female racer) for being so fast (and overtaking me down the bottom straight where no-one saw!)
#45 for his spectacular UPD and amazing recovery
Pete (#50 Top Banana) for being 50 and fairly hungover on a MUni…
oh and EVERYONE else too!
Hope to get some of our pics on the net soon!
There has been quite a few people (including many fast riders of note) attend Warwick in the last 3 years or so, so if all of them got together next year it would make for a fantastic race. Last year I came 3rd, so whilst I was delighted to be the third fastest rider in the UK, being the 3rd fastest that was bothered to go to Warwick did diminish it somewhat. I would rather be 10th next year if I know that the real fast riders are all there too.
Making a weekend of it sounds like a great idea. Count me in 
STM
I like that idea as well. If there was another reason to be around that area for the weekend I’d be far more likely to make the effort to be there, and it would be quite cool to do the road race even if it’s not really my thing - I really enjoyed the 10k and marathon at last year’s unicon (with exactly the same average speed in both events!).
Rob
My esteemed colleague in TeamBanana lives in Warwick. We’ve spent a few amusing hours trying to conquer the BMX track in the big park, east of the town centre. That could make a good MUni competition arena.
Warwick 2010
Hey People!
Is it on this year? I’m already researching more aerodynamic bananas… 
I had a look today and there are timetable slots for the fun race and “Unicycle 10k” on the event website, so the organisers think it’s on. I’ll try to contact John who’s always organised the uni side of things to make sure.
I’ll start a new thread too to see if anyone else knows anything and get the word out.
Warwick uni 2010
EMail reply from JtJ:
"Yes, the Unicycle races are happening on 5th September in Warwick again.
Entry form attached.
Please help spread the word, tell all the Unicyclists you know about this event so we can make it as much fun as possible.
If we don’t get enough participants the organisers are saying they may have to drop unicycling from the days events. Which would be disappointing.
The website should now have full details. www.uniquest.co.uk
I look forward to receiving your entry and seeing you on the day.
Best Regards,
John."
I’m having a diary based panic attack as I write!