I Want to Sincerely Apologize to our Viewers and the Cycling Community
Just over a week ago, a video was posted on TikTok showing me yelling at a person holding a phone/camera. I was on and beside my bike at Chatfield Reservoir in Colorado on a training ride. I would like to sincerely apologize for the way I acted. There is no excuse for that behavior and it is not the way I have been known to act. I was very offensive and appeared to strike the person. I sincerely apologize for everything you see in that footage. I am NOT going to excuse my behavior in any way, shape or form. But I believe that the cycling community and anyone seeing this deserves to know what led up to the video.
What the Video Didn’t Show
Christian Troxel, the man filming the video, makes no mention of the reason I was there and outraged. I did not just show up there. Moments before and ½ mile away, his “mom”, Melissa Leto, was holding and operating her phone, looking down and apparently texting while she was driving. She came alongside me, veered into the bike lane and forced me out of it. She did not stop but rather went on as if nothing happened. (Operating a phone or any hand held device in a car is illegal in Colorado SB24-065)
What’s important to know is that 19 months earlier I was cycling, was hit from behind by a truck, thrown 65 feet down the road and should have died by all statistics. I understand personally the possible results of distracted driving. My reaction caught in the video was largely a result of adrenaline. As with many cyclist accidents and deaths, a matter of inches separates someone from a serious or fatal crash and simply being forced off the road as I was by Melissa. I knew in that moment that I could have just as easily been lying on the side of the road again.
I followed her into the camping area to get a picture of her license plate so that I could contact the police. When I arrived, Christian was blocking me from taking a picture of her plate, holding the camera inches from my face at times and pushing me off my bike at one point. Parts of that interaction are shown in the video that was posted, but not the entirety. I was finally able to get a picture of her plate, left the area and reported it to the ranger office.
I then met with Douglas County and Jefferson County Sheriffs on duty at the park. They asked me if I wanted to press charges. I replied that I wanted her to take responsibility for her actions of driving while distracted and that I was fine physically. Over the next 2 weeks, nothing else transpired and I learned that she was not cited for distracted driving since there were no other witnesses.
Two Weeks Later a TikTok Video is Posted
On Friday, January 30, the video many of you have seen was posted by Christian Troxel on TikTok. At that point, I made a post showing her license plate and vehicle to find out who she was and who the man was that was blocking me from taking the photo. Numerous people apparently knew her and told me who she was.
Immediately after the video was posted, I was harassed on social media and text by some who saw the video. Melissa also contacted Avid Cyclist (my business), apparently not knowing she was messaging me. In that conversation, she admitted that she was texting and then said she was just using an app to find her son in the park.
I called Littleton Police and spoke to the same officer multiple times to try to quell the situation. He said he spoke with Melissa later that day and informed me that she agreed to request that her son take down the video and that she would not contact me directly or request that others contact or harass me. What the officer and I did not know is that Melissa’s daughter then posted the video on her TikTok account. Within the next 3 hours, I received harassing phone calls and:
- 7 negative Google reviews, all attacking me personally (these have since been removed by Google since they were personal attacks, not related to the business)
- 38 harassing Facebook messages attacking Avid Cyclist and me personally
- 40+ Instagram messages attacking me personally and Avid Cyclist
- 3 death threats
After finding out that the video had been posted again, I reached out to Melissa Leto and asked her to cease and desist and informed her I would be contacting my attorney. Her response shown in the screenshot below was to threaten me and Avid Cyclist, stating that she is putting a group and a foundation to stop my company completely. She also:
- Threatened to tell donors where their money is going. She apparently doesn’t realize the purpose of Avid Cyclist is to create a resource and positive community to promote cycling and to advocate for keeping cyclists and other vulnerable road users safe. It is NOT a non-profit. The site was built by me. The money used to start and finance it came from the small settlement I received after the crash that happened over a year ago and has yet to be profitable. This has been financed through my personal funds.
- Dismissed my efforts to help Douglas County raise money for kids cycling helmets through their “Eye Five” program.
- Criticized joint efforts between Avid Cyclist, other organizations and victims’ families to pass laws to increase punishment for Distracted Driving Resulting in Death.
In her efforts to attack me and Avid Cyclist, Melissa or her family members have never acknowledged what happened in the moments before the video was filmed and that her own choice to drive while using her phone could have easily resulted in a serious injury or death. If she had not been looking at her phone and veered into me, none of this would have happened. Instead, she has mounted a campaign to destroy me as well as Avid Cyclist.
Over the past couple of years, Avid Cyclist has grown from a small local site to a national resource and community for cyclists. As I mentioned, I’ve funded this personally and the business is not yet profitable. In addition to ongoing expenses to keep the site valuable to cyclists and other users, I have provided charitable gifts to Bicycle Colorado and Ollies Bike Parade (a child who was riding his bike and was hit and killed by a distracted driver), and have committed 10% of our gross membership proceeds to The White Line Foundation. In addition, I have:
- Covered news events and written articles regarding the trials and sentencing related to victims of distracted (texting) and reckless driving, including the deaths of Ollie Stratton and Magnus White.
- Helped produce the Ride For Magnus with The White Line Foundation
- Participated in The White Line’s Route to Change to bring awareness to deaths of vulnerable road users
- Testified to the Colorado State Senate Judiciary Committee to support a bill making Distracted Driving Resulting in Death a felony, where it is now a misdemeanor.
- Supported bills being introduced to the United States Senate including the Magnus White Cyclist Safety Act
I am not excusing my behavior; it was deplorable. But it is important to know what happened before the video footage and after. I am sorry for reacting the way I did, but I do believe it is important to let you know what led to this altercation.
It has been an honor to serve the cycling community for the last 2 years, and it’s a privilege to be part of advocacy efforts to save lives of vulnerable road users. I will continue to fight, personally, for laws that make roads safer.
If nothing else positive comes from this, maybe this situation raises more and necessary awareness for the tragic results that so often occur when distracted drivers are unaware of the cyclists and other vulnerable road users that are in their path.
Sincerely
Gary Robinson
