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Urluberlu: meet the Montreal cyclists riding through winter

One Franco-Canadian photographer has captured some of the estimated 50,000 Montreal residents who keep cycling through sub-zero winters

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.

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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.

 

Laura Laker is a freelance journalist with more than a decade’s experience covering cycling, walking and wheeling (and other means of transport). Beginning her career with road.cc, Laura has also written for national and specialist titles of all stripes. One part of the popular Streets Ahead podcast, she sometimes appears as a talking head on TV and radio, and in real life at conferences and festivals. She is also the author of Potholes and Pavements: a Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network.

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