Sports
Civilized Mass: Cyclists ride peacefully through Napa
111 bicyclists pedaled their way through town Sunday, in memory of a Napa man who was killed by a car while riding his bike last month.
More than 100 bicyclists from Napa and San Francisco gathered at Sunday morning for a memorial ride in honor of Napa cyclist Don Mitchell.
An avid long-distance rider, Mitchell was killed in a collision with a motorist Nov 10 while riding on a stretch of Solano Avenue, north of Napa, that is equipped with a bike lane and had been considered safe for bicycling.
The 105 cyclists who signed up at the start of the ride, plus another half-dozen who joined enroute, observed traffic signals and carefully shared the road with cars, pedestrians and pets as they pedaled from the college to the site where Mitchell died in a crash that is still under investigation.
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Much of their route was on dedicated bikeways, including the initial stretch along the Napa River from the college to the north side of Imola Avenue and the commuter bike path that parallels the Wine Train tracks from downtown to the west side of Highway 29, where it joins up with the bicycle lane on Solano Avenue.
The ride was organized by the Napa County Bicycle Coalition and two cycling clubs Mitchell belonged to, Napa's Eagle Cycling Club and the San Francisco Randonneurs.
