Cycling in Canada: Winter finally arrives in southern Ontario—along with a season of viking biking
Remember those glorious, mild, spring-like days of late 2015, Toronto riders? That beautifully innocent time when you thought winter would never arrive?
Winter cycling from the Annex to the Junction in Toronto, Ontario during the season's first snowfall, Dec. 28, 2015. from Todd Aalgaard on Vimeo.
Remember those glorious, mild, spring-like days of late 2015, Toronto riders? That beautifully innocent time when you thought winter would never arrive?
Take a deep, freezing breath of that early January air. It’s finally here.
The snow first starting coming down in earnest on the evening of Dec. 28, 2015, the same day we warned you that the season could easily rear its head at any time and start biting. Like clockwork, the temperatures dropped not two hours after that warning was published, the streets were quickly blanketed with accumulation, and the headwinds began to feel like something out of the Franklin expedition, making the experience of city cycling that much more interesting.
If you’ve never biked through the winter in big, cold Canadian cities, whether Toronto, Montreal or Calgary, here’s a video of that first viking-style ride through a now recognizable southern Ontario winter, filmed by yours truly.
If not, don’t let the cold deter you. As ever with all things cycling, it’s worth it—even with a windchill that feels like -22.
