Egg sandwiches delay 18,000-mile world unicycle tour

Ed Pratt is aiming to unicycle around the world

A man bidding to be the first person to unicycle around the world was only able to clock up seven miles on his first day - due to his egg sandwiches.

Ed Pratt, 19, set off from his home in Somerset but forgot his lunch.

His parents handed them over to Mr Pratt but his specially made pannier bag split when the sandwiches were put inside.

After some repairs to the bag Mr Pratt set off and managed 40 miles to Bournemouth on day two.

The unicycle enthusiast, who aims to complete the 18,000-mile charity trip for School In A Bag in two years, boarded a ferry to St Malo earlier on Monday.

"I cycled by myself to the official start line and there were about 50 people there to cheer me off," he said.

The egg sandwich caused Ed Pratt's pannier bag to split

"My mum brought the egg sandwiches I'd forgotten to find in the fridge in the morning.

"My pannier bags were very full already but there were a couple of small egg sandwich spaces in the rear pannier.

"The problem occurred when I tried to close the bag and the zip split. It was a disaster because I couldn't just go out and get another one, these are custom made bags.

"My friend Melanie, who had come down to cheer me off, offered to replace all four zips on my panniers and I dropped them off at her home.

"She spent all night fixing them, I think she finished at about midnight and I was able to set off again at 12:00 the following day."

Mr Pratt first learned how to unicycle two years ago and set up a unicycle club at his former school, Wellington School, and completed the 140-mile C2C route.

He will pedal his 36-inch Nimbus Oracle unicycle up the north coast of France to the Netherlands, then across Europe, through China and south east Asia and then across Australia and America.