Too cold to cycle? Not in Montreal, where around 50,000 cyclists keep riding through winter in temperatures as low as -17c.
One Franco-Canadian photographer, Valerian Mazataud, has captured images of some of the 15% of Montreal’s cyclists who keep riding through winter, pictured in temperatures as low as -17c.
Titled Urluberlu, the series title is a clever play on the French word Hurluberlu, which can mean spinner, crank or oddball.
Mazataud says where once year-round cycling was a marginal activity, more and more of Montreal’s inhabitants are now cycling through the winter.
#mycyclingweekend – fill your boots with readers’ photos
He says: “Along with Moscow and Sapporo, Montreal is one of the coldest and snowiest city above 1 million inhabitants. Nevertheless, it's the only one which finds its way into the top 20 of the most bicycle-friendly cities, according to the Copenhagenize index.”
“During the winter, an estimated 15% of cyclists remain on their saddles, around 50000 of them.
If ten years ago the winter cyclist could be considered as a freak (hurluberlu in french), the phenomenon is now far from being marginal. These self-proclaimed huluberlus may well be the first represents of a urban population accepting its winterity. In other words, choosing to embrace winter rather than fight it.
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Riders – men and women – are pictured in snow boots and ski goggles, as well as some innovative layering of regular winter clothes. The style of the images of what Mazataud describes as a ‘semi-nomadic’ winter population, is inspired by the formal portraits of early ethnographers and anthropologists discovering unknown tribes in their natural environment – often amid huge snow piles left after the streets have been cleared of snow.
Your mistake was not going to see someone in Barnard Castle.
Gotta be honest here, it is YOUR attitude that comes across… slightly peculiar....
That's quite a shocking number of pedestrian deaths (405). Walking isn't supposed to be risky.
I jad a taxi driver pull up beside me at a traffic light to comment on how visible I was....
I’m fine with it. But that’s because I am a member of The Four Tops
One more wasted green space will fix it.
Pedantic I know but that implies that he has won three stages in each of the GTs, whereas actually he has three in the Tour, one in the Giro and...
I agreed with you until I found these: https://fablecycle.com/products/excalibur-padded-lycra-shorts
Kind offer, I think though they need a ferrule that will get them into a hole......
When there's an emergency vehicle approaching and I'm on the bike, I will get out of the way ASAP....