Ride the Lobster was the world's longest

unicycle A unicycle is a vehicle that touches the ground with only one wheel. The most common variation has a bicycle frame, frame with a bicycle saddle, saddle, and has a human-powered vehicle, pedal-driven direct-drive mechanism, direct-drive. A two spee ...

race, held in June 2008. This 800-kilometre international relay race around the roads of

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

was conceived by Edward Wedler. He gave the race its unusual name because he thought the roadways around Nova Scotia resembled a

lobster Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...

. The five-day race had five stages, composed of four legs winding around the province of approximately 200 km each and one day of time trials. The first stage was from

Yarmouth Yarmouth may refer to: Places Canada *Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia **Yarmouth, Nova Scotia **Municipality of the District of Yarmouth **Yarmouth (provincial electoral district) **Yarmouth (electoral district) * Yarmouth Township, Ontario *New ...

Annapolis Royal Annapolis Royal, formerly known as Port Royal, is a town located in the western part of Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Today's Annapolis Royal is the second French settlement known by the same name and should not be confused with the n ...

. The second stage went to St. Margarets. The third stage was composed of two time trials, Hubbards in the morning and Truro in the early evening. The fourth stage was from Truro to

Antigonish , settlement_type = Town , image_skyline = File:St Ninian's Cathedral Antigonish Spring.jpg , image_caption = St. Ninian's Cathedral , image_flag = Flag of Antigonish.pn ...

. The final stage went from

Port Hawkesbury Port Hawkesbury (Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile a' Chlamhain'') is a municipality in southern Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. While within the historical county of Inverness, it is not part of the Municipality of Inverness County. History ...

to Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Baddeck.Official Website- Frequently Asked Questions
The event coordinator, Heather LeBlanc, intentionally made early stages easier for the contestants and the final stretch difficult. It was originally proposed to hold the race annually but there have been no subsequent events.

Rules

Each team was composed of four people—three riders and one in support. The support person was not allowed to ride. The three riders took turns completing the distance of the race. The rider was not be switched over the first 10 kilometres of each race day. After that, the team had full discretion as to how often they wanted to switch riders. All riders completed the 21 km time trial.

The race

In 2008, the inaugural race began on 16 June, with 104 riders (124 had qualified) in 35 teams from fourteen countries. The race concluded in Cape Breton County, Nova Scotia, Cape Breton with contestants reaching the finish line between 5–7 pm on June 20. The winning team was awarded $5,000 in cash and prizes. The pre-race hypothesis that Unicycle#Touring_unicycles, geared unicycles would offer a significant advantage over non-'gunis' was seemingly born out, as the winning team rode gunis.

Results

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website

Ride the Lobster Blog

Race Results
Cycle races in Canada Unicycling