Memorial Ride for Kristy and Matt

Last Saturday afternoon (March 15), I decided to go out to do the memorial ride for Kristy Gough and Matt Pederson, who were the 2 cyclists killed on Sunday (March 9) on Stevens Canyon Rd.

It was amazing - there were hundreds of cyclists - maybe even more than a thousand - that all congregated at Foothill College on El Monte Rd today, starting about 2:30 pm. The ride was scheduled to leave at 3:00 pm, heading down El Monte to Foothill, then following Foothill until it became Stevens Canyon, then end up at the memorial site where the accident happened. After the memorial, the entire group of cyclists would then return on the same route back to Foothill College.

The Channel 7 News team was there (maybe Channel 2, also - but I only saw Channel 7) - they were filming everything and doing some interviews with different cyclists. I also saw a helicopter hovering above - I'm not sure, but it might have been a news helicopter, just getting some aerial shots.

The Third Pillar Racing and Roaring Mouse Cycling teams left promptly at 3:00 pm, leading out a very slow procession of cyclists, with the Sheriff's office helping to providing traffic control all the way to the memorial site on Stevens Canyon Rd. You could see that all the people from the Sheriff's office that were present were very respectful and truly felt bad about what had happened last Sunday.

It was an amazing site seeing the hundreds of cyclists covering half of Foothill Blvd and then Stevens Canyon Rd as we headed out to the memorial site. We were allowed to totally take over the slow lane all along the route. When we got to the top of the small hill on Stevens Canyon Rd (just a short distance before the place where the accident happened), they had closed the road completely to allow all the cyclists to come to a stop at the memorial site.

Most of us were wearing small patches that had been handed out to us in the parking lot of Foothill College before the ride started.

Also, a lot of people were handed roses, including myself - and those with flowers - or anything else they might have brought with them - were allowed to come up to the memorial site and place their flower (or whatever memento they had) down on the site. It was a very moving experience - and it was generally very quiet as people moved slowly past the memorial site.

The saddest part was hearing Kristy's mom, who was crying uncontrollably for quite a long time. I only knew it was her because someone that knew Kristy's mom pointed her out to me.

Ride safe, everyone...