Mary Jane Reoch (January 2, 1945 – September 11, 1993) was an American cyclist. She won 11 national championships during her cycling career and afterwards worked as a cycling coach. She was killed in a road accident while training a client in 1993. She was posthumously inducted into the

United States Bicycling Hall of Fame The United States Bicycling Hall of Fame, located in Davis, California, is a private 501c3 non-profit organization formed to preserve and promote the sport of cycling. The organization was founded in 1986 in Somerville, New Jersey and has inducte ...

in 1994.

Early life and career

Reoch was born on January 2, 1945, in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

, Pennsylvania. She began cycling and racing in her mid-twenties. Reoch won 11 national championships in various cycling events throughout the 1970s and early 80s, and was on the world championship team 9 times. She received first place in the National Track Championship 7 times, between 1973 and 1980, and the National Time Trial Championship once in 1975. She also received second or third place in these events, as well as in the National Road Championship, many more times in different years. She was second place in the 3 km pursuit at the Belgium World Track Championships, in 1975, and third place in the 3 km pursuit at the Italy World Track Championships, in 1976. In addition, Reoch won the local

Tour of Somerville The Tour of Somerville is an annual, three-day series of bicycle races held in and around Somerville, New Jersey during Memorial Day weekend. The featured Memorial Day event, the Kugler-Anderson 50-mile race for professional and elite cyclists is t ...

and

Fitchburg Longsjo Classic Fitchburg Longsjo Classic, also known as the Longsjo Classic, was an annual bicycle race held in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, United States. The race began in 1960 as the Arthur M. Longsjo Jr Memorial Race, in honor of Art Longsjo. History Th ...

in 1976 and 1979, respectively. In 1977, she started to work as a cycling coach, coaching many individuals and teams for roughly the next 15 years. She is known in particular for coaching Connie Carpenter, who won a gold medal in the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the sec ...

Personal life

At the age of 35, she rode on her bike to the hospital to give birth to her first daughter, Solange. She married John Reoch, a lawyer. The couple moved to

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

and later divorced.

Death

Reoch was killed in a road accident on September 11, 1993. She was training a cycling student named Bill Seals at White Rock Lake in

at roughly 9:15 am. While they were cycling, a pickup truck went into their lane, striking Reoch head-on and throwing her into the lake, killing her. Seals flew over his handlebars and landed on the pavement, out of panic. The pickup truck driver fled the scene. He was arrested in Michoacán, Mexico, in July 1996 and charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Posthumous honors

In 1994, Reoch was posthumously inducted into the

. Fuji Bikes established the annual Miji Reoch Award for "the best young female rider under the age of 23", which includes a $1,000 cash prize.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reoch, Mary Jane 1945 births 1993 deaths American cycling coaches American female cyclists Sportspeople from Dallas Sportspeople from Philadelphia Road incident deaths in Texas 20th-century American women