The women's peloton from this year's Redlands Bicycle Classic will donate part of the prize money from the Southern California race to the family of Erica Greif, a fellow competitor who died in an automobile collision while travelling to the race earlier this month.
Greif's brother told Cyclingnews on Monday that the family will use the donation to set up a USA Cycling Development Foundation scholarship in Erica Grief's name. The prize money from the women's teams will be the first donation to the new fund.
“I was definitely shocked to hear that they were going to be able to or would be willing to donate this money,” said David Greif, Erica Greif's brother. “These are women who already have enough problems with getting equal payout and all these things, but it really means a lot to us that they want to do that.”
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Erica Greif, 23, was an elite racer for the ZOCA-Halo Sports team as well as a student at the University of Nevado-Reno. She took an exam on April 7 in Reno and then planned to drive through the night for the Redlands start at 8:45 a.m. the next day. She was involved in a fatal collision outside of Ridgecrest, California, in the early morning hours of April 8.
As news of Greif's death spread among the competitors and staff at the race, Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies director Pat McCarty put forward the idea of donating part of the overall prize money to Greif's family as a way to honour her life and passion for racing.
"Everybody heard the tragic news the first day of the race, and I don't know, I felt like we had to do something," McCarty said. "This was just terrible, just terrible. I think it was just a good thing to do for the race and for the women's peloton to make some kind of gesture. I thought that was appropriate."
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