Let the steam!

The second Moscow bicycle parade at minus 27: how it was. Report and photo

Volunteer Vladimir, in a hat-earmeling and a blue shirt, sitting on a bicycle, lifts a hand thermometer to the sun. Minus 27.

- They promised minus 35, and what people are only scared ... The last time there were many children, today - only brave. - Nearby, with a bun and a glass of tea, a girl jumps from her foot in a huge scarf stretched to her eyes, and each time pulls him down, biting off the pie. - By the way, those who doubted whether to come, and they stayed at home. And these people are undoubted.

My hair in the cold becomes white, nearby there are two men in ski glasses - both have a beard in Hyane. They start to gather an hour before the start. While you are scurrying between bicycles, it seems that even minus 27 is not. The sun shines into the eyes, there is no wind, people, approaching, begin to let pairs from their mouths, like vapers - get acquainted, laugh.

This is the second winter bicycle parade in Moscow. Last year, about five thousand people gathered, this time - ten times less. Some participants arrived on rollers or scooters. Santa Claus-Roman, for example, will go on a monocycle (this is such an electric “Self-Cathedral”). The novel is from Podolsk, and this is his second winter race.

- At the last moment I thought I would refuse, well, it’s cold. But the New Year is still. ... It’s not good to sit at home somehow! So I dressed up, for fun!

The organizers thank the parade partners from the stage and include loud music. Young guys nearby begin to dance in a joke, clinking paper cups with tea. A woman in a colorful scarf runs up to me and calls to a tent and smoking samovars:

- Girl, come here, here you can hear each other, and warmth! We have all the money from the sale of pies, coffee, tea will go to a charity project - to create special stairs for the disabled in buses. For the second year we have been collecting, and the Department of Transport sent us here, because here the cyclists are still a special understanding. In addition, all the hungry after the parade will be, - the woman removes empty boxes from the table. - They dismantled everything with meat!

She waves a man at Minivan.

- Petya, carry meat!

Everyone is bent next to the samovars - here you can warm your hands a little. From the crowd, the Snow Maiden, bunnies, an angel, a ghost periodically “look”. Sasha, a guy on a low scooter, arrived in a frog suit.

“Put on gloves, please, my heart is doused with blood on red hands,” Sasha tells me, “I myself will not even take them out of my pockets in mittens!” And the suit is so warmer for me. But in general, the organizers asked to be in costumes. True, in the costumes of the Snow Maiden and Santa Morozov, but everyone understood in their own way. With a scooter, I thought it would be dumb, but I came from the subway - normal. In winter, the first time I try on it, I will see how it can stand. In the summer I completely passed the route, 14 km - such adrenaline!

At 11:00 - the start of a bike racket. And this is the hour when it becomes truly cold. I am trying to put a bag with “self -heating” in the mittens to warm my hands, but my fingers do not obey. Volunteers who will remain at the start take places near the road. They do not stand still, periodically jump and try to move somehow. They laugh that it’s cold, and they should stand for another hour and a half, at least.

One after another, not in a hurry, cyclists roll out onto the embankment. A man passes by with a buzzing police “blouse” on his neck, a woman with false cat ears is carrying music columns on the steering wheel, someone is already pulling a selfie fingering forward. Bicycles, scooters, mopeds and rollers turn towards the Kremlin. There they will turn back and finish here, on Frunze.

At all slowly, cyclists are pulled up, who have just found a place for a car at a neighboring house. The main column is closed by Santa Claus-Nikita with a loaded “trailer”-it has a Christmas tree and gifts.

After 20 minutes, the first ago, Santa Claus will turn just-because of a pierced wheel. Nikita is sadly taking the bicycle:

- I have not frozen! I would honestly go on. Only now a breakdown ... Okay! What to be sad, the new year,-Nikita is abruptly fun, pulling a beard on his nose, takes out sweets from a red bag in the trailer and gives out to journalists remaining at the start.

It will not pass even 10 minutes, as the first cyclists will begin to turn back - they really froze. Near the border, a policeman shifts from his foot to his foot, he rubs his hand from the cold, asks me displeasedly: “Why did they come up with this today? In such weather and why? How could it be? Terrible".

Returning cyclists are more and more, and only 11:40 on the watch. A woman in a costume of a white hare smiles at me:

- They rolled well, breathed air. My friend went on. I will wait for her here with warm tea. Oh, I don't think she will pass the whole route. Although…. There, with everyone, good. You will be surprised, but everyone is happy! As if the thermometer deceived us.

According to the organizers, up to 500 participants gathered at the second winter bike parade.