THIS week I was lucky enough to meet up with a young Oxford cyclist by the name of Louis Claremont. Louis isn’t your average bike rider – as became clear as he cycled round on only one wheel.

No, he hadn’t been in a crash or been the victim of a wheel theft – he’s a budding unicyclist. Despite being only 12, Louis is pretty adept on one wheel and could even give some adults on two wheels a run for their money.

I asked Louis how he got into unicycling, as I can’t imagine it’s something where you wake up thinking ‘Yes, I must learn to ride on one wheel!’ A friend living nearby turned out to be the main reason. This mate was given a unicycle for his birthday, so they both spent the next month trying to learn how to ride it in a garage, learning how to balance by holding on to two chairs.

After a month, both boys could already cycle for a fair few metres before falling off. According to Louis, one of the first things you have to learn is how to fall off properly.

There are two ways to do this: forwards or backwards – holding on to the handle that unicycles have on their saddle.

These days unicycling isn’t an occasional hobby for Louis; he regularly cycles everywhere on one wheel, including into town from his home in East Oxford, and along the towpath by the Thames.

In fact, when Louis is doing one of his other hobbies – phoning DJs such as Radio 1’s Dev – he might well be unicycle-phoning.

He has also learned to further impress people using a few tricks. Along with his friend, he was up on the hill at Brill testing new skills when another unicyclist there showed them both how to do jumps. He has since been busy perfecting them.

In addition to his ability to cycle on one wheel, Louis is also a dab-hand at Diablo, and has entertained an audience at his former primary school with his tricks.

I should also add that he can turn some impressive somersaults on a trampoline – in fact, I’d say Louis is the circus equivalent of a decathlete.

What we could really do with for Louis, and other kids like him, is to have circus skills training in Oxford.

Cities like Bristol have weekend circus training workshops for all ages and abilities, along with longer courses at half-term (the Brighton area has four circus training centres).

While I am sure there would be no shortage of demand for such training in Oxford, this appears to be lacking in the city (although if anyone knows any better, please let me know).

For Louis, his future looks bright. He could take on any one of his skills and make it into an act, or get snapped up for the Olympics for his trampolining skills.

But it would be great to get more of our young people involved in cycle tricks to build their confidence – and more places like skate parks for them to practise.