Aspen – After a recent 100-mile road-riding tour in Moab, a trio of lonely pro riders tapped their unused autograph pens on their stacks of posters and stared across the parking lot at the throngs surrounding Mike Tierney, who had only ridden a metric century (65 miles) on that fall day.
Everyone wanted his picture. They wanted a high-five. They wanted to slap his back. Exchange a few words. Bask in the noblesse of the one-wheeled wizard.
“It’s always like that. It’s a total clown show whenever I ride,” said Tierney, Colorado’s patriarch of mountain unicycling, who has redefined what is possible on one wheel. “People are finally starting to equate unicycling with athletic endeavor. In the past, not long ago really, it was something from the circus.”
Tierney, a 47-year-old father of two from Aspen and Colorado’s first ski patroller certified to patrol on telemark skis, has simply moved the circus to the hills. When he’s riding, he is the circus.
“It’s one of the only things I’ve done in my life that makes people smile,” said Tierney, who bears a distracting resemblance to a younger, much healthier Blue, the ill-fated, rubber-faced character from the movie “Old School.”
“Unicycling brings universal happiness. People are totally blown away.”
Tierney is an Aspen legend, known across the Roaring Fork Valley for his one-wheeled exploits. He’s ridden 25 of Colorado’s mountain passes and plans to finish the rest next summer. He’s ridden 80-mile days, including a 10,000-vertical-foot loop this summer traversing from Copper Mountain over Vail Pass, Battle Mountain Pass, Tennessee Pass and Fremont Pass back to Copper. He’s climbed Mount Evans with his 36-inch wheeled road uni, stunning wary race directors. He’s garnered all sorts of national unicycling titles. He’s forged a path for hundreds, maybe thousands, of unicyclists pedaling their sport from circus-tented obscurity to a full-blown adrenaline and adventure sport.
“There is no equal to him in terms of racing or long-distance, high-endurance rides,” said Rolf Thompson, a 37-year unicyclist and organizer of the 7-year-old Moab Mountain Unicycling Festival. “Whenever he races, he’s always at least 20 percent ahead of the second-place finisher. Some of the high-altitude rides he’s done just blow me away. He’s perfected that aspect like nobody I know.
“He is a world-class athlete and, as far as I know, there is not anyone in the United States who can do what he can do on a unicycle.”
This past summer Tierney quietly registered among the hundreds of two-wheelers for the Bob Cook Memorial Mount Evans Hillclimb, a 28-mile grunt that climbs more than 6,700 feet and pummels two-wheeled, 21-geared riders.
“It was so funny to see Mike ride by me that morning,” said race organizer Beth Wrenn-Estes. “We were absolutely amazed when his category started and he rode by us that morning. I actually think I had my mouth open.”
New generation of riders
Starting with his 16-year-old son Logan and 13-year-old daughter Lily, Tierney has instilled the uni-vibe in countless kids – young and old – in the Roaring Fork Valley. A new wave of younger riders has taken Tierney’s spirit of one-wheeled adventure and merged it with a page from the skateboarding book to start pushing unicycling into new realms. Where Tierney hammered new ground in the previously unheard of world of long-distance, endurance unicycling, a younger set today is forging a new school in trick and street unicycling.
The jumping and twirling trend mirrors that of terrain park skiers and street skaters, who changed the direction of their sport through above-ground gymnastic exploration.
And like other action and adventure sports, technology has enabled the new school. Beefy tires, a surprisingly recent innovation in unicycling, provide the suspension and softness needed for the repeated hopping that lead to aerial tricks. Burly forks and cranks have opened doors long shuttered by unicycling’s historically dainty equipment.
“Two years ago we saw guys like Mike showing us the possibility of long road trips,” said Kayo Ogilby, head of the science department at Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale and instructor for the school’s nascent mountain unicycling class. “Now, with the fat tires allowing us to ride with the seat low enough to hop, we’re seeing a real explosion in the street riding. It’s becoming a session sport.”
It’s a lifestyle
It warms Tierney’s heart to see more people unicycling. He thinks every kid should be required to learn unicycling. The core strength and balance needed for unicycling carries over to any physical activity. But even though his son Logan has become a bunny-hopping street rider, Tierney will always lean toward the uphill, pedaling for hours up massive mounds and working just as hard on longer descents.
“On a unicycle, you are always pedaling. On long rides, I go deep inside and find this ‘Zen state of the now”‘ he said. “It all comes together and it really is quite pleasant even though you are suffering. That’s my sanctuary. I feel at ease with the world. It feels like where I need to be at that time.”
It’s in his nature to take the hardest road. He works on skis with his heels unlocked and rides for hours on a one-wheeled bike that doesn’t allow for coasting.
“I think I’ve always chosen the hardest path,” he said. “Probably has something to do with finding greater satisfaction. The deeper the pain, the deeper the reward.”
Staff writer Jason Blevins can be reached at 303-954-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com.
