What niche form of cycling do you like to indulge in? Singlespeed cyclocross racing? Recumbent cruising? Tandem bothering?
Well, I'm afraid to say that, no matter how weird you may think your chosen fringe form of cycling is, it doesn’t even come close to these.
The UCI indoor cycling championships take place in Basel this weekend (6 to 8 December) and, in celebration of the event, I took the chance to check out the highlights from the weekend's events and investigate some other unusual bike-based sports.
Artistic cycling, because acrobatics obviously isn’t hard enough already
This video hardly needs an introduction – those moves are ridiculously impressive. We can barely manage a forward roll let alone a handstand on a moving bike.
However, it does leave us with a few important questions; how would those 1:1 geared, fixed gear bikes with a head angle that looks close to 90 degrees handle on the road? How on earth do you get into this incredibly fringe sport? And would I look good in one of those leotards?
While I can’t answer all of these questions right now, I'm already scouring eBay for a suitably garish leotard.
Bike ball, because feet are for losers
Are you rubbish at football yet crave the camaraderie of a team sport? Are you decent at track stands, wheelies and turn bars, but run like a foal on ice? If so, bike ball may be the sport for you.
Riding on bikes that look like a cross between a Raleigh Chopper and a pitch-fork, bike ball is possibly the most Euro thing to ever happen. Ever.
My take? Clearly an easy way to get injured fast. I’ll pass.
Unicycle football, because goring your shins doesn’t get boring
When riding your unicycle, do you often think, “I wish what I was doing right now was even harder and more dangerous”?
If this sounds like you, unicycle football may be the sport for you.
Unicycle football appears to be a hybrid of American football and riding a unicycle… it’s as simple as that.
With a rulebook which is remarkably extensive (i.e. hard to learn) and with tackles that are as equally aggressive as its bike-less counterpart, I'll be giving this one a miss.
We’re also sad to report that a mere $355 was pledged towards the estimated $100,000 cost of building a dedicated unicycle football stadium. And I thought the demand for such a venue would be huge...
Have I missed anything? If you know of, or indeed participate in, anything as niche as any of these let me know in the comments below.
