Horwich Festival of Racing Report by Julian Page.

18 Jun 2013

The First National Open Unicycle Road Race 2013 went ahead on 16th June at the Horwich Festival of Racing. With 28 entered it was a fine race won by the Norwegian rider Cato Tveit.

Second was Duncan Clark. Duncan's train was cancelled so he was late getting into Bolton station. He unicycled the 6 miles out to the start, just having time to pin a number on, then the race was off! Matt Morris came third , he would have pushed Duncan but for a bad fall -I'm glad you didn't try the SPD foot clips Matt.

Half of the sponsored riders were there, me, Claire, Matt, JL and Cameron, together with the full unicycle staff. Black UDC teeshirts were there in abundance. Cameron won the under 16's section. Nora Tveit, daughter of Cato came second in the ladies and under 16's, and won the first position for under 36" wheel size. She used a 32" !! Emily Johnson won the ladies event and UDC sponsored rider Clair came third.

Notable falls from JL passing the start line and Emily when finishing the 1 lap fun race. Both jumped up and showed what stern stuff us unicyclist are made of. Cameron had to show off some of his street skills as well.

Roger and Rachel competed in the 5K run, and 10 unicyclists participated in the fun cycle race-including Roger who could just keep up with the little uns! Not bad Roger, a swim in the lake district in the morning, 7 mile unicycle race, 5K run and then the fun run.
For me it was great to see nearly 30 big wheel unicycles in one place - That does not happen often.

The idea for the race happened after I finished unicycling the local park run and one of the organisers asked me if it would be possible to have a unicycle race at their Horwich festival? From a little seed great things grow.

It was a great day out well organised and hopefully to be repeated next year. Many thanks to all who attended -lets have lots more entering next year.

Julian

The Results