This weekend, 4,000 people from all 50 states, and more than 20 countries gathered to ride or walk at one of the largest commemorative advocacy rides in U.S. history.
“Ride for Magnus: Ride for Your Life” calls for immediate action to prevent cyclist and pedestrian deaths nationwide. Organized by The White Line, the ride is dedicated to 17-year-old cyclist Magnus White, a member of the US National Cycling Team who was killed by a driver on July 29, 2023, in Boulder, just days before competing in the Mountain Bike Cross-Country World Championships in Scotland. One of America’s most promising young cyclists, Magnus was also the US Junior Cyclocross National Champion.
His life was cut short when he was struck by a car while biking along the Diagonal Highway in Boulder. His parents, Jill and Michael White, formed The White Line in December 2023, to inspire cyclists around the world and pay tribute to lives taken too soon. The organization is dedicated to advocating for the safety of all vulnerable road users and aims to be a voice for creating safer road environments.
“Nothing we will ever do will bring our Magnus back, because the system we have right now failed him,” Michael White said. “If Magnus was just one quarter of a second faster or slower, he would be here, and none of this would be happening.” After an emotional send-off Sunday morning, cyclists departed from Farrand Field on the CU Boulder campus.
Bikers followed a 13.5-mile route that led them along Folsom Street to Jay Road and then onto Colo. 119, eventually leading to the site where Magnus was struck.
Riders then made their way back to Farrand Field for a rally. “It takes all of us working together to save lives and protect vulnerable road users,” Gov. Jared Polis said at the rally.
Polis has signed 26 laws aimed at expanding access to safe biking and walking since taking office in 2019. Michael White said the numbers of cyclist injuries and deaths due to drivers are at all-time highs, with the numbers for pedestrians at their highest level since 1981. “More than 1,100 cyclists were killed last year.
Over 46,000 were injured. More than 7,500 pedestrians were killed, with over 67,000 injured, all by drivers,” he said. The event offered a small insight into the grief and pain Magnus White’s family has endured over the past year.
In their north Boulder home, a picture of Magnus sits on their mantel along with his ashes, a flag given to him by U.S. Rep.
Joe Neguse and two Lego cars which his friends made on his birthday in his honor. “I texted him, ‘You know if this cycling doesn’t work out, what do you wanna do?’ ” Jill White said. “And he was like, ‘Can you just buy me some Legos? I just want to do some Legos.
’ And those were the two Legos he texted me. So his friends, for his birthday, built those Legos for him.” Magnus’ presence can be found in each corner of the home.
For a stranger, subtle details — his untouched room, his Subaru parked on the street — could be misread as a teen who’s home but just can’t be found. “You go in his room, and it feels like him,” his mom said. But there are also reminders of the gravity of the family’s loss among Magnus’ belongings.
His Subaru now bears the plates “4MAGNUS.” The family’s bikes in the garage remain largely untouched. And the basement has become a makeshift storage space for all The White Line shirts and merchandise.
The Whites say they’re exhausted from the past year; organizing the Ride For Magnus event, grieving the loss of their son and witnessing an ongoing criminal trial. “It’s a lot, Magnus,” Jill White said with her head in her hands. “It’s a lot.
But it’s for you, Magnus.” “I get strength looking at Magnus,” his father said while staring at the picture of Magnus on the mantel through tears. “I just want Magnus to be proud of me.
” Two weeks after Magnus’ death, Michael White was looking through his son’s phone when he decided to begin posting on Instagram. “I was just laying in his bed two weeks after he died and seeing stories or other people’s social media accounts, and they just stop after they die, and that breaks my heart. I just laid there and grabbed a beautiful photo of Magnus pedaling up a hill.
It literally looks like he’s pedaling to heaven. And I just wrote we’re going to keep his Instagram alive,” Michael White said. Since then, family, friends, teammates and competitors — even people who have had just one conversation with Magnus — have all shared memories and photos.
“We share all of those, and that keeps his spirit alive,” Michael White said. Michael White has also traveled throughout Europe in the last year to lay “Ride For Magnus” plaques on routes Magnus rode. “The Whites deserve an enormous amount of credit for turning their grief into action,” Dan Langenkamp, the organizer of the first Ride For Your Life event, said.
”I know this myself, as a person who’s grieving his own wife, it takes a ton of energy. It wrings your heart out to do these interviews, to do this organizing.” Langenkamp lost his wife in 2022 when a truck driver hit and killed her in Bethesda, Maryland.
After his wife’s death, Langenkamp vowed to do something. Since then, he’s organized five Ride For Your Life events across the country. “That’s what’s so important about this weekend,” Langenkamp said.
“We’re seeing a huge response to this ride, and it’s because people are saying it is not OK that people are dying on our roads. The response to the Magnus story is a response that says, ‘If our champion cyclists are getting killed, then we have a huge problem in America.’ ” Ride for Magnus is expected to enforce change within safety laws and infrastructure.
Organizers are pushing for three major changes at the national, state and local levels. First, they are advocating for a new federal rule requiring U.S.
automobiles to have Automatic Emergency Braking that can detect and prevent collisions with cyclists and motorcyclists. A study by the International Institute of Highway Safety showed that AEB for cyclists could prevent 52% of all fatal crashes between bicyclists and cars. Secondly, advocates are calling for increased penalties for vehicular homicide in Colorado.
Currently, “careless driving resulting in death” is a misdemeanor traffic offense, and “reckless driving resulting in death” is a class IV felony of vehicular homicide, with non-mandatory sentences often resulting in probation and no jail time. Lastly, advocates want state officials to accelerate the planning and construction of bicycle and pedestrian projects, starting with ensuring that the North Foothills Bikeway project that connects Boulder to Lyons along U.S.
36 is fast-tracked and completed by 2029, as 90,000 cyclists ride this route each year. “Traffic violence is unacceptable at any level. Magnus’ death was tragic and preventable,” said Jenn Dice, president and CEO of PeopleForBikes, a national bike advocacy organization.
Dice said 1,084 people on bikes died in 2022. “And each one of those people mattered,” she added. Pete Webber, Magnus’ biking coach and executive director of Boulder Junior Cycling, echoed the need for urgent action, noting that government processes and public infrastructure projects are often painfully slow.
Ride for Magnus serves as a call for change, demonstrating a unified commitment to safer roads and highlighting the communities’ demand for improved cycling safety. “Thousands of people are raising their voices. Government leaders are going to see thousands of members of our public asking for this, and I think they’re going to be more motivated to implement projects that improve safety,” Webber said.
One of the top concerns with bike safety remains the lack of bicycle infrastructure and safe places for cyclists to ride, Webber said. Though improvements have been slow since the incident, the state legislature passed a hands-free cellphone bill this year, which will go into effect next year. This legislation marks a small step towards reducing distracted driving and promoting safety for all road users.
“Magnus lived life to the fullest and had so much passion, and I want to do that for him in what we’re doing and pour my passion into that,” Jill White said. “We are coming together to call for action. Magnus is watching, and the time is now,” Dice added.
Staff writer Nicky Andrews contributed to this report..
