CORRECTION--The ride is Tuesday, Dec. 26

 

Sorry about that!   I probably would have showed up and wondered where everyone was.

 

Chandler

 

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Long time big club members may remember that TUESDAY Dec. 26 is the tenth anniversary of the tragic car-bike crash that claimed the lives of club members Margaret Raynal and Doug Hill and injured the other four club members on the ride. 

 

To honor their memory,  we will have a Memorial Ride on TUESDAY, Dec. 26, starting at 10 a.m. at the Bicycle Memorial.   There will be a brief memorial service, followed by a bike ride on the Gainesville Hawthorne trail.

 

The Bicycle Memorial is in downtown Gainesville, just east of Main Street on Depot Road, and is next to the Depot Trail. 

 

The crash occurred just before noon on Dec. 26, 1996 in the northbound lane of State Road 21 about one mile south of the intersection of State Road 16 and SR 21. The driver of a pick-up truck fell asleep at the wheel and ran into the back of a paceline. The ride was exploring new routes for Bike Florida.

 

Both Margaret and Doug were leaders in the Gainesville bicycling community.  Margaret Raynal worked at the UF for a program that taught bike safety skills to schoolchildren and was a principal organizer of Bike Florida.   Doug Hill was the dean of bike shop workers in Gainesville, the best bike mechanic and one of the most nice and patient people you would ever meet.  We miss them both.

 

In past years, we have had a clean-up of the area, however this year, the area around the Memorial is under construction, so a clean-up is unnecessary.   Instead, we may want to think about what sort of landscaping we might want to plant at the Memorial once various construct is complete.

 

Ride leaders may want to route their rides by the Memorial for the 10 a.m. memorial service.

 

I will be there to lead a  ride on the GH Trail.  I'm slow, so no one will be left behind.