To someone who has never attended Unicon, it must seem a bit outlandish to hear people talk about and praise this event. Even I find it overdone sometimes. Until one second later all those memories, stories and beautiful moments come to my head and I find myself saying “I wish it was always Unicon.”
Unicons, short for Unicycling World Championships and Convention, are like the Olympics, Christmas and summer camp happening all at once. They are held every two years in a different country somewhere in the world. This year Unicon 17 was held in Montéal, Canada. It was my eighth Unicon and it’ll be a while before I grow tired of them. If ever. It was also the first time I was in charge of directing an event, together with Benoit, one of the Unicon hosts, I organized the muni competitions at Mont Tremblant and helped with communications. In between, I was able to squeeze in some enough time to be goofy with my brother Felix, meet old and new friends from all over the world, watch world class riding and exciting competitions, explore Montréal by unicycle, take part in the naked bike ride, eat Poutine, convince people to take photos in bib shorts and search for ways to climb the roof (which doesn’t exist, of course).
Oh, and I did compete as well. Here are my results:
Uphill: 1st Place Age Group
Cyclocross Unlimited: 2nd Place Age Group, 4th over all
Cross Country Elite: 3rd Place Age Group, 5th over all
Downhill Advanced (Qualification): 4th Age Group
Downhill Elite (Finals): 8th over all
Now that we are all back in the real world on our parts of the world, all that’s left are a handful of magical moments in my head and on camera, a set of medals and that one phrase: “See you in two!”
