Donna Kisogloo

When People talk about unicycles, it usually conjures up images of Krusty the Clown wearing oversized shoes and Juggling, white pedalling furiously a top a single wobbly wheel.  What probably doesn't come to mind is a badass MTBer negotiating rocks and roots and shredding single track at speed-that is, until you see Donna Kisogloo in action.

- Jonathan Ancer

Donna Kisogloo rides a unicycle, but she’s not just a unicyclist; in fact, she’s a mUnicyclist. ‘mUni’ is mountain unicycling – an extreme sport, on the fringes of standard-issue cycling. “It’s wild, it’s rugged, and it’s a blast,” says the 39-year old one-wheel wonder, who is a regular feature on Cape Town’s Tokai trails.

“I love single track with flow; single track that’s engaging and technical,” she adds.

Kisogloo, who went to the Unicycling Convention (UniCon) mountain cross country in Spain last year, also rides on tar occasionally, and is the only woman ever to complete the Cape Town Cycle Tour on one wheel. It took her nine hours and some change.

In May she completed a uni mountain bike two-day stage race: the tough and technical Gravel & Grape. Which was not plain sailing – her partner broke his ankle two weeks before the race, fooling around on his uni.

For a while it looked like she would have to pull out or ride solo; but she found a new partner, Piotr Wolski, in the nick of time. “I had all of three people I could ask,” she says. (See her G&G race report at bicycling.co.za/muni.)