Cycling through winter

We are in the middle of a long and rainy British winter. Not cycling weather. That’s the perception, anyway. Cycling weather is the sunshine that beats down on a peloton sweeping past fields of sunflowers, or on the dusty trails of Marin County, birthplace of mountain biking. Instead, we have pouring rain and plunging temperatures, conditions that drive many road cyclists indoors to their stationary trainers. One winter, I was among them.

With a young child and limited time to exercise in the short days, I set my bike up on rollers in the garage and hunkered down for a winter of indoor cycling. No virtual racing on Zwift for me; I had to make do with determination and watching TV shows on a laptop balanced on a workbench. Unfortunately, I chose Les Revenants, the French supernatural drama with a sinister Mogwai soundtrack. It made for a bleak few months.

I pedalled through that winter in the cold garage, dragging myself out there every couple of nights for another long hour on the rollers. By spring, I had resolved to ride outdoors year-round. It was hardly a new concept. For as long as there have been bikes, people have ridden in winter. In March 1919, cycling writer Walter MacGregor Robinson, known as Wayfarer, crossed the Berwyn Mountains in deep snow:

In spite of all our difficulties – and it was no easy matter to fight our way through the snow and against the brisk north-wester - we had time to admire the wonderful world in which we found ourselves. Everything - or nearly everything – was pure white, which glistened in the sun and dazzled us. As we neared the ridge we found the wind had a curious effect on the snow, which looked for all the world like the ruffled sand of the sea-shore when the tide goes down. Our crowning joy came on rounding a bend at the highest point. Then we glimpsed that promised land. The mountain side fell away and rose again, and in the misty distance we saw the snowy peak of a great fellow thrust up to the clouds. The nearer mountains were wrapped in what looked exactly like satin coverings.

Tales like this can shape a belief that winter riding is an extreme adventure. It’s for the sort of person who longs to test themselves on a challenge like the Iditarod, which runs 1,000+ miles overland along a sled dog trail through the Alaskan wilderness. Or the Strathpuffer 24-hour mountain bike race in Scotland, which promises ‘17 hours of darkness, miles upon miles of gruelling terrain and a brutal mix of ice, wind, hail, rain, mud and snow’.

But winter can, and should be, for ordinary riding too. In the Finnish coastal city of Oulu, the fourth most northerly city in the world, people ride through temperatures that can drop to -30C. Despite the conditions, 50% of children cycle to school. Even in deep snow, school bike racks are full. It helps that Oulu’s culture and infrastructure support riding, including a 900km network of safe and well-lit cycling and walking paths.