The VANGUARD

NovaNewsNow.com

Thirty-five teams are expected to take part in the Ride The Lobster unicycle relay race that is scheduled to start Monday, June 16, in Yarmouth.

Riders from over a dozen countries – including the United States, the United Kingdom, France and South Korea – will participate in the five-day, 800-kilometre event.

They will ride as three-person teams, with some teams having an extra member as a spare.

The plan is for riders to gather in the Boston Pizza parking lot and leave there at about 8 a.m. They will make their way onto Starrs Road, ride as far as Haley Road, then turn onto Forest and go along Forest as far as Main.

The relay will start at 8:30 a.m. by the town detachment of the RCMP, the riders heading out on Route 1 for a journey that will lead them, by week’s end, to Baddeck.

Wayne Hamilton of the South West Shore Development Authority, Yarmouth contact person for the relay, indicated that the riders are looking forward to the event.

“I’ve been on the blogs and stuff and they’re all talking about coming to Nova Scotia and they can’t wait,” he said. “Really the riders are quite excited.”

Some of them will arrive in Yarmouth Saturday night (June 14), but most will come Sunday morning, he said.

Relay-related activities are planned for the day before the June 16 start, including a lobster boil at 1 p.m. at the Dennis Point Wharf in Lower West Pubnico (sponsored by the harbour authority there and the Dennis Point Café) and unicycle demonstrations there and on the Yarmouth waterfront, the latter expected to take place between 4:30 and 5 p.m. or so.

A reception for the riders is planned for that evening at the Grand Hotel.

As for the relay, the five-day competition will pass through more than 130 communities.

The event is expected to draw what organizers refer to as the “world’s unicycling elite,” including Kris Holm, described as the “Wayne Gretzky of unicycling,” who, according to a news release, due to injury will not ride.

Edward Wedler of Greenwood, the relay’s main organizer, envisaged when he began planning it an event that not only would be a major unicycle competition – it’s billed as the world’s longest unicycle marathon – but also would help promote Nova Scotia and draw visitors to the province.

From the Yarmouth end of things, meanwhile, Hamilton summed up the state of preparations for the inaugural relay.

“Everything is on target, rolling ahead on one wheel,” he said.