VERO BEACH — Bicyclists pedaled slower than usual and there was a subdued tone to this particular Saturday morning bike ride.
It was Vero Beach’s first Ride of Silence, a bike ride to show local cyclists’ support and awareness for bicyclists killed or injured on our roads. It was staged at 8 a.m. today from Riverside Park after bad weather forced organizers to postpone the international ride event Wednesday night, when several hundred cities across the world hosted Ride of Silence events. In Florida, Rides of Silence were also held across the state.
As clouds burned away this morning, about local 35 bicyclists pedaled across the 17th Street Bridge, stopping at several sites where bicyclists died to pay their respects and then returned to Riverside Park.
Vero Cycling bike club president Sharon LaPoint set the tone for the bike ride during her welcome, noting the bicyclists would be pedaling about 8 mph and that the circuit would include stops at several places where bicyclists were killed.
Family members and friends of bicyclists Valerie Jean Waters, Cole Coppola and Kevin Adorno, all killed while on bike rides, attended to add their support.
A hit-and-run driver killed Waters just before Christmas last year, while Coppola, a popular John Carroll High School student, was struck by a passing motorist as he and a companion rode home over the 17th Street Bridge in September 2014.
In 2014, bicyclist Adorno, of Farmington, Connecticut, stopped at a McDonald’s on U.S. 1 in Vero Beach as he neared the end of his ride along the East Coast to Miami, where he intended to become engaged. A deranged man killed Adorno, who had stopped at the McDonald’s for a drink.
Vero Beach bicyclist Tad Diesel, who participated in Saturday’s ride, wore an orange Adorno T-shirt like several other riders to remember the fallen bicyclist. Diesel said his children grew up with the Adorno family members when there were in Farmington.
Saturday’s Ride of Silence also remembered and honored two avid Vero Beach cyclists who died following organized bike rides. They are Brian Nolan, Indian River County assistant fire chief and longtime leader of the Indian River Shores Public Safety Department, who died of cardiac arrest in 2010; and Vero Beach resident Keith Gergely, who died of cardiac arrest following a 2012 ride honoring another cyclist.
Vero Beach police officers helped with the Ride of Silence. Two officers were on bicycles, while a third was on a motorcycle. A fourth in a cruiser also helped with traffic control.