When two wheels are just too much: Unicyclists show off their skills by carrying out extreme sport up a mountain

Lutz Eichholz tackles the terrifying and rugged peaks on his unicycle

The German is an 'extreme unicycling' enthusiast

He has been unicycling since he was nine and is one of the world's best



Hurtling down a mountain track on a mountain bike, with sheer drops awaiting careless riders, is a terrifying and thrilling way to spend your free time.

But it's not adrenaline-fuelled enough for German extreme sports enthusiast Lutz Eichholz, who instead takes to some of the world's most rugged terrain on a unicycle.



The 26-year-old, who has been unicycing since he was just nine, is a pioneer of extreme mountain unicycling and has travelled the world to indulge in his heart- stopping hobby.

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Eichholz pauses to survey the terrain before cycling his way down the Dolomite Mountains in Italy

Mr Eichholz, who is often joined by his friend Stephanie Dietze, recently took to the unforgiving Dolomite Mountains in Italy and the pair were filmed making their perilous descent, using an incredible amount of skill and physical fitness.



The riders are often forced to bail on their one-wheeled machines, which have similar tyres to mountain bikes, as they take a spill during their hair-raising journey.

Mr Eichholz has to 'bunny hop' down sheer rock faces, fight to maintain his balance on the treacherous shale beneath him and teeth-grindingly pedal up arduous steep slopes.



His exploits have even earned him sponsorship from major sports brands.

Eichholz (left) plunges down a slope as his friend Stephanie Dietze looks on

He is also the world record holder for the highest ever unicycle drop, landing a plunge from 6m of an overhanging rock in the Moroccan desert.



Extreme mountain unicycling was pioneered during the 1990s on the West Coast of the United States, and has since attracted thousands of enthusiasts from around the world.



'People like the novelty of it,' Wendy Grzych, the president of the Unicycling Society of America, told the New York Times .

'It’s a whole subculture, and a different makeup than your church friends or work buddies.'

The pair won the support of Adidas sportswear, who sponsored their trip and provided a professional cameraman to record their unbelievably dangerous feats

Practitioners claim the sport is no more dangerous than mountain biking, despite the frequency of falls.



'We fall more often than mountain bikers, but we’re going slower so it’s not as bad.

'The same cliffs are out there,' said unicyclist Hans Van Koppen.



'Unicycling is by far much more exercise (than mountain biking),' Van Koppen added. 'You use every part of your body — arms, legs, stomach, back.'

The sport has even spawned its own terminology for the many injuries it can cause, such as 'shindentations' (marks where rocks puncture the front of the legs) and 'calf tracks' (thin scars where the pedals cut into the back of the calves).

