A bicycle racer was struck and killed in the hills above Palo Alto on Friday afternoon by a man police say was driving drunk.
John E. Peckham, 31, of Mountain View had just broken away from a training ride on Old Page Mill Road when he was struck by a car at 12:17 p.m. The car wound up 50 feet down an embankment on Old Page Mill Road, a frontage road near Page Mill Road and Foothill Expressway.
Peckham was taken to Stanford Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Marc Johnston.
Peckham's cycling partners, who were reportedly about a minute behind him on Old Page Mill Road, called police.
Chevelle Bailey, 41, of Fremont was booked into the Santa Clara County Main Jail on four felony counts, including suspicion of driving under the influence, hit and run, vehicular manslaughter and being under the influence of a controlled substance.
Peckham was a member of the Alta Velo bicycling club, a group of 380 to 400 cyclists who wear green, white and blue jerseys. He was one of the group's 20 to 25 best racers and had recently returned to cycling after a crash earlier this year, club president Brian Peterson said.
``I think it's a shame that a young person who was well-respected not only in the cycling community but also outside of it had to be a victim of someone else's foolishness and carelessness,'' Peterson said.
Peckham was an engineer at a biomedical company. He had recently worked at a Boston Scientific office in Fremont, according to postings on Alta Velo's online message board.
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http://forums.roadbikereview.com/sho...d=1#post767119
Ride hard and be safe.
A better lilnk about John-http://www.altovelo.org/