{"id":366111,"date":"2025-12-23T06:25:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T06:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/366111\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T06:25:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T06:25:07","slug":"cycling-community-mourns-2-riders-killed-in-pilot-point-crash-urges-road-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/366111\/","title":{"rendered":"Cycling community mourns 2 riders killed in Pilot Point crash, urges road safety"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The holiday is heavier for friends and family of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/texas\/news\/two-bicyclists-fatally-struck-by-vehicle-on-fm-455-in-pilot-point-police-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-absolute=\"true\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">two cyclists hit and killed in Denton County<\/a> over the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Scott Mages and Andre Kocher were on a group ride in Pilot Point when the accident happened. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Being out on the open road, with the fresh air and just having the sun on your shoulders is an amazing experience,&#8221; said Anthony Ysasaga.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ysasaga loves cycling, but maybe more than riding, he loves the people he rides with \u2014 including his friends Andre Kocher and Scott Mages. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Andre was somebody who was a protector of the group and he always looked out for the group and made sure that everybody got home on time. Scott, again, the same type of person. He was a leader in the group, so he was leading the group he was in on Saturday,&#8221; said Ysasaga.<\/p>\n<p>While riding with a group on Saturday, Mages and Kocher were hit by a truck and killed. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We looked up to these guys and they were like brothers to us. More than friends, they were brothers to us,&#8221; said Ysasaga.<\/p>\n<p>That loss is hard to swallow for Ysasaga and much of the cycling community. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They were the epitome of what community members should be. They were thoughtful, they were caring and they gave of themselves all the time,&#8221; said Ysasaga.<\/p>\n<p>Ysasaga and Mages were part of the same bible study group, and Ysasaga says it&#8217;s hard to imagine reading pages of scripture without a man who had become more than a friend. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m going to miss seeing him on every Tuesday morning at 7 o&#8217;clock. We sat in a group together and just going to miss, I&#8217;m going to miss talking to him. I&#8217;m going to miss sharing my life with him,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I&#8217;m going to miss my friend.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He hopes his friends will be more than a memory, but instead, their lives can help drivers keep everyone on the road safe. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Just please be aware of the people on the road and slow down,&#8221; said Ysasaga.<\/p>\n<p>The driver of the vehicle drove a short distance from the accident but returned to the scene before any police arrived and is cooperating with the investigation, which police say is ongoing at this time.<\/p>\n<p>The Frisco Triathlon Club will be holding a <a href=\"https:\/\/m.facebook.com\/events\/1366364368302355\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">5k\u00a0 Santa Fun Run to honor Mages and Kocher<\/a> on the morning of Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;re also asking people to donate to the Frisco YMCA in the name of the two men, or to the GoFundMe supporting their families. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n        More from CBS News\n      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The holiday is heavier for friends and family of two cyclists hit and killed in Denton County over&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,197945,10470,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-366111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-denton-county","12":"tag-fatal-crash","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}