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The coldest race on
two wheels

>>The Montreal Ice Cup takes
winter cycling to a new level

RINK RACERS: Montreal Ice Cup competitors,
Feb. 2007 (above and below)

by SHANE SINNOTT
photos by LUCIE POULIN

Winter has never been kind to the urban cyclist: salt and slush seem to devour components, the bike has to be stored indoors at night and, of course, it’s fucking freezing. So it’s not surprising that the majority of us avoid it, and when we see a guy puffing up Parc against the sleet, we tend to look at him in the manner we reserve for the foolhardy.

Some cyclists, however, thrive in the winter, so much so that they’ve taken to racing each other on ice—not in icy conditions but on actual skating rink ice—in an organized fashion, in an event called the Montreal Ice Cup, which takes place at the Bonsecours skating rink in Old Montreal on Saturday, Feb. 2.

The Ice Cup has been around for five years, during which time it has evolved from a small part of the Fête des Neiges at Parc Jean-Drapeau to a full-fledged day-long racing event, with multiple classes and much fanfare. It’s organized by Tom Ostreiko, who has been an independent bike messenger in the city for the past seven years. It started when Ostreiko found himself in Toronto one year watching an ice race and began to ask questions.

“They said, ‘You put lots of screws in your tires and you can ride on ice,’” Ostrekio recalls, and he promptly went out with his friends and tried it. “The proper tires grip better to the ice than rubber tires do to asphalt. It’s so much steadier than a normal ride.”

It’s all in the tires

The “proper tires”—key to the entire operation—are regular rubber bike tires with a shitload of screws sticking out of them. Racers generally make their own by drilling pilot holes through the rubber tire, inserting the screws (anywhere from 100 to 400 in total), and then adding a liner before replacing the tube. “Somebody making one for the first time might take three or four hours,” Ostreiko says, but with experience, that time can be cut in half.

Lucie Poulin, the 2006 female champ, spent a little more time than that. “Everything is in the tires,” she says. A well-made tire grips the ice so well that “there is no way you are going to fall.” In fact, one of the hardest aspects of the race was overcoming the weirdness of riding on ice without slipping. “It’s hard to make your brain believe you’re not going to fall,” she says, which is required if you’re going to lean into curves while speeding across a skating rink.

If all of this sounds like something you’d like to try, the organizers this year will have a bike on hand and a practice area where you will be free to embarrass yourself or impress your friends, and test Ostreiko’s claim that, “If you can ride a bike, you can ride a bike on ice.”

For safety reasons, participating in the race itself requires pre-registration at www.coupedesglaces.org, though the oval course raced in Montreal is much safer overall than the Figure-8 track the maniacs in Toronto run (picture lots of collisions at the intersection of the “8”).

Lest you think it’s all serious competition, there is a “rubber class” where racers do what they can with unmodified road bikes, and the main event is always conducted in the spirit of good fun—Poulin told me that her trophy from last year (an ice sculpture) is still in her freezer. When I asked what the most difficult aspect of her winning race was, she thought about it a bit before replying with good humour.

“The hardest part was keeping warm all day.”

Rolling on ice

Making Ice Tires

There are studded tires commercially available, but Ice Cup organizer Tom Ostreiko doesn’t recommend them—besides, it’s much cheaper to make your own. Get a tire in decent shape, and a bunch of Robertson (the ones that use the square end screwdrivers) screws: 1/2-inch for mountain bike tires, 3/8-inch for road. Next, drill or poke holes in the tire, feed the screws through, and then place a liner made from an old inner tube to cover the heads of the screws. Reinstall the tire and you’re done. See? That was easy.

Selecting a Bike

You can use any type of bike you like (the only modification is the tires) but keep in mind that the wider tires on mountain bikes create much more resistance—road bikes will be blowing by you. For the record, the men’s winner last year, Kevin Black, was riding a single-speed road bike.

Keep riding all winter

Sure, it sucks sometimes, but so does that overheated purgatory called the metro. Plus, you’re not getting any exercise in the winter anyway, right? Try and get your hands on a single-speed bike, which has less parts to get gunked up with our glorious winter sludge. Dress warm and in layers, just like your mom told you, and think about your feet; you won’t only need boots, but something to cover the critical ankle-to-just-below-knee area, which will be fucked if you don’t get something waterproof on there.

—SHANE SINNOTT