Teams from Germany, New Zealand and the USA (Texas/California) took the top three spots, with 18 minutes separating the top two over the 5-day event. The youngest team, 2Y2D, whose average age was under 15 years, took 22nd in the 35-team field. USA Team, Yellow Line Fever, suffered an early blow even before the race began when one of their members could not make the event. Despite this loss the two-person father-son team of Nathan and Beau Hoover achieved an astounding 11th place. The other all-family team, USA Team Unicycle Max, were 24th. All-female team, Team Venus, accomplished 20th place. The Danish-Canadian Team, Hans Islanders were in the top ten, in 8th position, while the top Canadian, Vincent LeMay of Montréal, unicycled with the Personal Rollercoasters to 4th spot.

Nova Scotia High Rollers have found the international competition very tough and pulled out of Stage 2 about 40km outside of New Germany in shockingly heavy rains. Being chased by a Rottweiler and having a team member suffer stomach illness did not help. They will continue in the event at the Hubbards Time Trials today.

School children have lined the streets along the route. As riders left Yarmouth kids came out to greet the teams racing by. In Lawrencetown kids “high-fived” riders and were thrilled at the teams doing BritechGPS-baton exchanges. In New Germany an estimated two hundred school children welcomed teams at the first check point of Stage two, despite the rain. Knots of rural Nova Scotians watched in amazement as these athletes flew by and sprayed a trailing tail-feather of water , with video and still cameras recording the event. Flags were hung. Signs of welcome were posted. Balloons decorated many farm gates. Towns rang church bells and blew fog horns to signal the arrival of teams.

Seven teams arrived within about 23 minutes of each other at the end of Stage 2, an incredible result considering the distance and weather conditions. About six minutes after the German Team arrived, the New Zealanders crossed the finish line, with Team Smile (UK-Australia-USA) a close two minutes after the Kiwis. Heavy rains changed the dynamics of results. The young Korean Team, Team UFO No.5, for example moved up from 13th spot on day one to 8th spot on day two. The all-female Team Venus No.3 dropped several spots as did the Hurculean duo of Nathan and Beau Hoover. British teams fared well in the rain.

Despite the conditions many riders were having the time of their lives.

Standings will be made available as soon as they become available to the blog.

In celebration of Ride The Lobster, Condor airlines (www.condor.com) is offering a free flight draw to Europe for two.

-Edward

Stories abound already.

Team Yellow Line Fever, unexpectedly became the second all-family team in the race (the other being the deMilner trio) as one of their members could not make the journey to Nova Scotia. Down to two riders, Nathan and Beau Hoover will have their work cut out for them. Rules stipulate that no change to teams are allowed after June 1st. Their efforts will be Hurculean.

Seven unicyclists have already experienced some type of equipment or unicycle damage during air transport, or during training runs over the weekend. A key member of Korean Dream Team had their unicycle so badly damaged in transport that almost a new unicycle had to be built from scratch. Results of this re-construction is not yet available. Another unicyclist, sources say, had their seat fall apart and required overnight welding services for repairs.

One unicyclist, while riding about a parking lot in Annapolis Royal, accidently fell and required attention at a nearby medical clinic. He will be unavailable to support his team at least for Stage 1 of the race that begins hours from now.

Aside from a number of lost airline luggage incidents, lost car keys, misplaced riders, midnight arrivals due to cancelled and rescheduled flights out of the USA, the riders who remained unscathed had a great time at welcoming receptions.

The towns of Annapolis Royal and Yarmouth, and the small fishing community of Pubnico West greeted the riders with unbelievable receptions of music, entertainment and food. One head organizer stated that this may be the first event they know where riders may actually gain weight.

As this article comes to a close, riders begin to awake within the hour to eat a complimentary breakfast before making unicycle history.

Connections to the internet in this mainly rural province are limited. Sporadic reports are expected to come out of Ride The Lobster over the next five days.

Edward.

“The first [GPS and mapping] trial was an Ironman competition at 14 Wing Greenwood”, reports Delaney, and “since then, the product has evolved to the point where Apple Courier uses it to track its drivers and their orders in Halifax”. Britech wants to know where on planet earth you are, to the nearest metre, at any point in time, in real-time.

Britech is a major supporter of Ride The Lobster, donating resources, technology, time and effort, and sees this sports event as a way to continue its product development and commercialization in health and geomatics.

He reports that British Columbia resident and member of Team No.12 Hans Islanders, Todd Sankey, has been preparing 20-25 hours per week but has never done the distance needed in Ride The Lobster’s 800km 5-day international unicycle race in Nova Scotia, Canada. “To keep it up over five days?”, Sankey is reported to say, ” It’s hard to train for that . . After an hour and a half, I really have to get off.”

Boardman writes of Scheer’s recommendations “.. do not zone out. The second you zone out too much, you fall.” The South County Independent reports that “Scheer said his team would be competing against world-famous unicyclists and hopes to finish in the top 20 and that each team is tracked with a navigation unit that feeds real-time tracking back to www.ridethelobster.com, allowing fans at home – which will include Scheer’s wife and two children – to follow each team’s progress.”

Tracking and mapping of Ride The Lobster teams is headed by Britech of Nova Scotia.

“How hard will it

Results indicate the event is considered to be a challenge for all riders, but that a wait-and-see approach is needed. This event charts unknown territory. Forum comments suggest both mental and physical preparedness will play a huge role in how teams and riders will fare.

He writes in a recent post ” … I think we will have a really good time crossing Nova Scotia. I’m greatly looking forward to hanging out with unicyclists from around the world and hopefully making new friends. There is still a week left of anticipation before I head off to Nova Scotia, but every day I think about riding the lobster!”

RTL sponsor, Nova Scotia’s Port Royal Inn from Annapolis Royal has adopted this team from Singapore.

The Committee invites or challenges all of the other Stage participants along the route to do the same — to let the riders know, let the community know, let the world know that the race has arrived in your community!

For more information contact:
Dave Waters, B.Comm, B.Rec
Community Economic Development Officer
Municipality of the District of Lunenburg
Ph: 902-541-1353
Fax: 902-543-7123
www.modl.ca