As some of you may know I am a strong proponent for following traffic law and am fine with (and sometimes enourage) cyclists solo and group being ticketed for breaking traffic law. But I feel differently about this situation. It was a large charity ride - one that many participants travel to from other locations where the situation may be different. Every one I've been on has has police stationed at intersections stopping cross traffic if it was present. It was expected to roll thru stops and the police said encouraging words and received thank you's from riders.

There was no up front communication that we were supposed to roll thru, but it was obvious we were as the police were there stopping cross traffic or if there was no cross traffic were being positive or the like.

If I showed up at this local version of the MS ride and saw police at intersections I would have figured it was like any of the other MS rides where the police were there to keep the ride rolling.

Both parties should fix this. The tickets should be dropped for this time and next year the organizers should up front communiate that they either (1) got support from local police for traffic flow control and it is OK to roll thru when clear or that (2) they didn't and the road was under standard traffic control and all laws applied.