COAST-TO-COAST CYCLISTS BLITZ COLUMBUS

May 15, 2002

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Dan Trevas 645-8520 or [email protected]

COAST-TO-COAST CYCLISTS BLITZ COLUMBUS Mayor and City Council Join Effort to form nationwide
bike trail

COLUMBUS - Avid cyclists are crossing Columbus as part of a nationwide relay to gain support for a
coast-to-coast system of interconnected bikable roads and paths.

The riders began May 2 in Washington, D.C., and will arrive in Columbus on Friday, May 16. City
Councilmember Maryellen O'Shaughnessy and more than 20 other local cyclists are to meet the national
relay riders on the city's east edge at 1 p.m. and ride to City Hall.

At 2:30 p.m. at the Front Street entrance to City Hall, O'Shaughnessy will present the riders with a
proclamation from Mayor Michael B. Coleman declaring the city's support for this effort and
highlight the work of the Columbus Department of Recreation and Parks to open 165 miles of
interconnected bike trails throughout Franklin County.

O'Shaughnessy will be joined by Columbus relay rider Jeff Stephens and Rosemarie Rossetti, a Gahanna
resident, a handicapped cyclist. The trio will send Fred Kirchner, a member of the Central Ohio
Bicycle Advocacy Coalition and Columbus Outdoor Pursuits off to continue the relay to Indianapolis.
Rossetti, who carried the 2002 Winter Olympic torch through parts of Central Ohio, was paralyzed in
1998 when a tree weighing 3 ½ tons fell on her while she was riding her bicycle.

WHAT: Proclaiming the City of Columbus' support for a coast-to-coast bike trail.

WHO: City Councilmember Maryellen O'Shaughnessy, handicapped cyclist Rosemarie Rossetti and cyclists
riding in the National Bicycle Greenway Mayor's Ride

WHEN: 2:30 p.m., Friday, May 16, 2002

WHERE: Columbus City Hall, Front Street Plaza

Several members of the Columbus Outdoor Pursuits will be escorting O'Shaughnessy and the relay
riders downtown. The riders meet at 1 p.m. at the closed BJ's Warehouse parking lot at the
intersection of Main Street and McNaughton Road in Reynoldsburg. -30-

MARTIN KRIEG: "Awake Again" Author c/o BikeRoute.com 79 & 86 TransAms, nonprofit Nat. Bicycle
Greenway CEO Ever wanted anything so bad U were willing to die for it? Really die? By moving thru
clinical death and reversing paralysis, *I saw God* when I answered that question.