Joshua Fagerness crosses the finish line on the Flow Track at Amped 2025 - Photo credit: Seth Johnson
Joshua Fagerness has been riding an electric unicycle for less than two years. He just won Let It Ride 5 and sits third in the USA EUC national standings. Getting there almost did not happen.
In that version of his story, his court date does not move. The carpool leaves without him. His teammate Isaac Bonaventure is still in the hospital, knocked out cold from a crash the day before, and Fagerness stays behind. His knee, blown out a month earlier and taped and bleeding through his jeans by the time the day is done, keeps him off the course. Any one of those things could have been enough.
None of them were.
"The whole reason I'm here is answers to prayer after prayer"
Fagerness said after crossing the finish line first at Let It Ride 5 in Boulder City, Nevada on March 29, 2026. "It just all worked out."
Joshua Fagerness heading into the berm before the straightaway at Let It Ride 5 - Photo credit: Seth Johnson
That is one way to put it. Another way is this: Fagerness drove straight from Rochester, Washington at 1 p.m. the day before the race, picked up Justin Davis somewhere along the route, and pulled into Las Vegas at 7 in the morning. He spent part of that night at the hospital with Isaac, stayed until his teammate was stable, then showed up to race. He missed qualifying entirely. He had to win a Last Chance Qualifier (a sudden-death round for riders who failed to qualify outright) just to earn a lane in the final.
Then he won the race.
In EUC racing, where podium positions are decided by thousandths of a second and one wrong angle on a descent can end your day, what Fagerness pulled off at Let It Ride 5 was extraordinary. Not just because he won. Because of everything that had to go right just to get him to the start line.
Two Years In
Fagerness has been riding an electric unicycle for less than two years. That detail is worth sitting with for a moment, because nothing else about his EUC racing career suggests it.
He came to EUC the long way. He put 2,000 miles on a Onewheel first, never made it to a race, and eventually sold it. Then he saw a video of the Veteran Sherman, one of the first big performance EUCs to break through online, and something clicked.
I saw videos of it and I was like, I want that so bad. It looks like so much fun!
He waited for the right wheel, eventually pulling the trigger on the Leaper Kim Lynx. He put nearly 7,000 miles on it and made it count. Last October at Amped Electric Games in Bentonville, Arkansas, he won the Thunderdome, the marquee off-road event of the festival, on that Lynx. It was his first Amped Electric Games. He was fatigued from a full weekend of riding and racing and said so openly before the final. He was not at his best and he knew it.
He won anyway.
What stands out in hindsight is not just the result but how he was already thinking about the course while most first-timers are focused on survival. Ask him where the race is won and lost on a technical off-road layout and he does not hesitate.
I can ride faster in the berms and I'm not trusting myself to do it
Fagerness said at Amped. "That's everybody's struggle. That's where the speed is at. If you can hold the speed coming in and then accelerate through the berm, that's where everybody's making up serious time."
Joshua Fagerness riding the first berm at Thunderdome Amped 2025 - Photo credit: Seth Johnson
That kind of technical self-awareness, at his first major event, while running on fumes, is not something you can coach. It was a statement result from a rider most of the field was still getting to know.
Then he made a deliberate switch. Conversations with the right people led to an introduction to KingSong and a sponsorship arrangement that landed him on the F18 for the 2026 season, the same wheel Matt Burt was racing, the same wheel that has been quietly making a case for itself as a legitimate off-road competition machine.
"I've been riding it and I like it," Fagerness said. "It's a really good wheel. Could use some improvements, but overall, hey, Matt Burt is riding it, I'm riding it, Chad's riding it. There's a reason we're riding it."
The KingSong relationship is still young. Fagerness described it as being in its infant stages, still working out the kinks, still building toward something. That honesty is characteristic of how he talks about everything: direct, unvarnished, not interested in overselling what is not yet fully formed. He won on the Lynx. He is winning on the F18. The wheel changes. The result does not.
The Race
Let It Ride 5 is not a race that forgives mistakes. The course outside Boulder City runs nearly two minutes of desert terrain: sandy washes, embedded rock, a gap jump, a staircase section the riders call Stairs to Hell, and the Monstah, a steep loose descent that has reshaped itself year after year as riders push its limits harder each time.
Joshua Fagerness catching some air on the Triple Z at Let It Ride 5 - Photo credit: Seth Johnson
Fagerness had a plan going into the final and it was simple. Get out front and hold on.
"I knew in order to win it was going to take everything I had," he said. "So I just gave it everything I had."
Pre-race favorite Zac Darnell, fastest qualifier, King of the Hammers winner and three-time Let It Ride veteran, got out front off the start anyway. He was faster off the line. But somewhere on the Monstah, Darnell pushed the angle a fraction too far. He got sideways. Fagerness found the cleaner line, threaded through, and took a lead he would not give back.
He had no idea how close it was.
"I thought the S-corner in the middle was where I had the advantage," he said. "I was like, oh, I got them. But I look back at the video, that's where they were actually catching me. You don't know sometimes."
The final times: Fagerness at 1:37.001. Zac Darnell second at 1:40.018 and Justin Davis third at 1:41.014. Three positions, just over one second between second and third.
He's a rookie this year. He's just started racing and he's already won two big races. You better watch out for him because he's hungry and he's taking those victories.
Said Justin Davis, who having watched Fagerness all season, was not surprised.
What Drives Him
Fagerness does not describe himself as religious. He is careful about that distinction.
Joshua Fagerness giving a post-race interview at Let It Ride 5 - Photo credit: Seth Johnson
"I wouldn't say I'm religious," he said. "I'm just a follower of Jesus. I just leave religion out of it and I just try to follow Jesus and do what He did: love people, serve people, try to be the best person you can be."
That framework shows up in how he talks about racing. Not in a way that feels performative or out of place, but in the way that someone talks about something that is simply true for them. The overnight drive was an answer to prayer. Making it to the start line was an answer to prayer. Winning, after the court date, after Isaac, after the LCQ, after the knee, was an answer to prayer.
"Outside of serving God, this is the most alive experience I ever get," he said. "Riding and pushing these wheels to the absolute max, over the terrain we're riding. It's just the most I feel alive."
He has dreams for where EUC racing goes. Big ones.
"I just hope we can blow this sport up and get more people riding EUCs. Let's get it just like Supercross and dirt bikes. Everybody should have an EUC."
Before You Leave, Gear Up
Fagerness closed with the thing he most wanted people to hear. Not about the win. Not about the standings. About gear.
His teammate Isaac Bonaventure knocked himself out in a crash the day before Let It Ride 5. The doctors at the hospital could not believe how well he came through given how incoherent he was when he arrived. The reason, Fagerness said, was simple.
"Isaac's okay because of gear. Always wear gear. Whether you're just going out for a little sidewalk ride, it's worth it. You never know, and anything can happen. If you're prepared for it, just like Isaac, instead of being paralyzed or worse, you come out okay."
Isaac was released from the hospital. Fagerness won the race. His knee will heal.
He is now on the USA EUC National Championship leaderboard with two strong results in two starts this season. The circuit continues with Westworld Nationals at Arizona Bike Week in Scottsdale, Arizona, April 10-12.
Find Joshua Fagerness on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok at @yeetereuc. Full season standings and upcoming events at usaeuc.com.
Additional USA EUC Links
Race Coverage
Let It Ride 5 Race Recap — the race this article centers on, full story including the LCQ and the Monstah
King of the Motos 2026 — USA EUC Championship Race — his first circuit result of the 2026 season
His Next Race
Westworld Nationals at Arizona Bike Week — April 10-12, Scottsdale, Arizona
2026 National Standings
USA EUC National Championship Standings — Fagerness sits third heading into Westworld Nationals
Athlete Profiles
Zac Darnell — current national standings leader
Justin Davis — second in the standings and rode shotgun with Fagerness on the overnight drive to Boulder City
Matt Burt — fellow KingSong F18 rider
News Profiles
Zac Darnell — EUC Racer Profile — deep dive on the rider who set the fastest qualifying time at Let It Ride 5
Justin Davis — From Motocross Roots to EUC Pro Class — second place national standings, who rode shotgun with Fagerness on the overnight drive
USA EUC National Championship Circuit Launch — the structure Fagerness is now competing in for a national title
Amped Electric Games
Amped Electric Games — Bentonville, Arkansas — where Fagerness won the Thunderdome in 2025 on the Lynx in his first appearance at the event
