Relay-unicycling London to Cambridge

On Sunday 25th Jult 1999, a team of unicyclists mainly from Cambridge Community Circus took part in the Bike Event's sponsered 58-mile cycle ride from London to Cambridge.

The aim was to cover the course in stages, swapping unicylists relay-fashion so that no-one had to do more than about 10 miles (and hence survive without over-severe damage in the saddle area!). One support bike went the whole distance, and for most legs of the trip a team of two swapped unicycle for bike and back till being relieved at the next rest stop.

In total 6 legs were covered by 7 unicyclists, except for the last 2 or 3 miles, in which all took part together

Sponsorship for the event was split between the Bike Event's charity - Breakthrough for Breast Cancer - and Cambridge Community Circus

Role of Honour

The 7 intrepid uni-bods were Helen Coutts, Claire Durant (main organiser), Rob Lister, Dizzy Manning, Mark Rushton, Stuart Swift and Sam Thornely.

Honorable mentions go to Duncan Coutts for unicycling the last 3 miles with the team after cycling nearly 60 miles, Gill Boys for surviving being interviewed on Radio Cambridgeshire, Charlie Hull for providing van and support from an infeasible early hour on a Sunday morning, Ian George for ferrying people around, and of course Bike Events for their help and all the cyclists we managed to double-take and who supported the riders en route...

Mark Tillotson, 26/07/99

See also the official CCC page for the event.

7:32am Dizzy at point B comtemplating the folly of it all?

8:07am Stuart in the support van, point B wondering `which unicycle do I want to go on today?'

7:25am Rob and Claire reaching point B Triumphant and exhausted after the first long leg on the smaller Uni. We received reports of hills.

8:24am Rob's exhaustion manifest (point B)

8:25am Stuart bravely heading off from point B on the monster unicycle, 36" Coker with 2" tyres. Thanks to Barry Gates for the loan of this awesome machine.

Stuart and Mark R managed to average about 15mph on their 10-mile leg on the Coker, nearly beating the support vehicle, and overtaking some seriously fit (bi)cyclists up the hills...

point C saw the changeover to Dizzy and Helen at around 9:10am, and who against much sensible advice chose the Coker as their vehicle of choice.

10:19am Video clip (1.4Meg) of Dizzy arriving at point D on the Coker, Helen on the support bike and pointlessly pointful hat. Choosing the Coker had been the right thing, we were running well ahread of schedule.

10:19am Dizzy and Helen recovering at point D, the loyal gecko/lizard mascot in evidence on the support bike.

10:20am Rob setting off for point E with Claire to follow on the support bike.

10:21am Coker 36" with improvised sun-hat, Lawrence of Arabia style.

10:21am point D, the Catharine Wheel pub by this stage the course was getting busy.

11:18am arrival of Claire & Rob (point E) The support vehicles had happened to overtake them a bit earlier, and taken the opportunity to shout friendly abuse and so forth.

11:19am Claire expressed discomfort at this point, having done a total of around 20 miles, half on bike and half on unicycle. The exact phrase being sometime like "Ouch!! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!!".

11:19am Stuart psyches up

11:20am Stuart sets off to point F Mark R to follow and by chance be saddled with the worst of the hills [sic].

12:18pm the team wait at point F

12:23pm arrival of Stuart & Mark R (point F)

12:24pm Stuart & Mark R's exhaustion is tangible!

12:25pm But smiles win out

12:55pmHelen models the essential fashion accessories for today's single wheeled fanatics.

1:08pm Dizzy and Sam who must be on a unicyle, no normal person would stand like that.

1:09pm Sam, Dizzy and Helen set off from F for the last major leg of the ride, this time 2 unis and 1 support bike, owing to surplus keeness.

For the last 3 miles or so the whole team took to unicycles, and Mark R collected his giraffe to aid visibility in traffic...

3:03pm Triumphant arrival of Rob, Dizzy and Mark R. Seconds later...

3:03pm Triumphant arrival of Claire, Sam, Helen and Stuart

Of course next year there will have to be somthing bigger and better and millenium-sized. Watch this space....