To: The Cycling Community of Gainesville,

 

I am writing in regards to what I consider aggressive riding by a double-paceline on the Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail.  On Wednesday, September 27, at around 5:00 pm, plus or minus an hour, a group riding in a double-paceline, sporting Team Florida Jerseys, ran my wife off the trail.  This occurred on the curve just beyond the stop sign at the service road for the Alachua sink area.  The group was occupying both lanes of travel and she had to bail out as the group, occupying the complete trail, approached head on. The hills and curves are no place for a double line. 

 

On Thursday, the following day, I had some words with a group in similar garb and with similar riding technique.  I used my best drill sergeant diction to express my displeasure with the double-paseline through the hills and curves area of the Hawthorne-Trail.  If this group is riding with similar disregard to the rights of others while on public roads it is no wonder that drivers are angry with us as cyclists.  Someone in this Thursday group said that she was on the wrong side of the trail, this is nonsense. She was as far to the right as practical and bailed out to her right.

 

Please stop riding two abreast through the hills and curves area of the trail.  Please stop being bullies on the trail.  The trail is for everyone in the community.  Riders on the trail are not training obstacles in your game of chicken.

 

Sincerely,

Kevin Ward