CONO-SUR 1999 Problem 6

An ant walks across the floor of a circular path of radius $r$ and moves in a straight line, but sometimes stops. Each time it stops, before resuming the march, it rotates $60^o$ alternating the direction (if the last time it turned $60^o$ to its right, the next one does it $60^o$ to its left, and vice versa). Find the maximum possible length of the path the ant goes through. Prove that the length found is, in fact, as long as possible.

Figure: turn $60^o$ to the right .

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