Moonlight Ramble canceled for 2023

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) - The 2023 Moonlight Ramble has been canceled for good, organizers told First Alert 4.

Saturday’s bike ride was called off 45 minutes after it was supposed to start due to rider safety. In August, the ride was pushed back to the September date due to rainy weather.

The below note was sent to riders Sunday morning:

“Moonlight Ramble Participants,

Needless to say, it has been a challenging few weeks with unpredictable weather forecasts, rescheduling logistics, and the disappointment of last night’s late cancellation of the event. Rider safety is the number one priority for our team and we had to make a difficult decision last night. In an effort to be transparent, the third-party security company that we’ve worked with for years to close down intersections to keep the route free from cars assured us that they had the personnel in place to fulfill our requirements, continuing their assurances up until 10:30 the night of the event. As we prepared for the final route check, it became apparent that the intersections were not secured due to absent personnel and considerable traffic continuing to stream onto the course, many drivers moving barricades themselves that were in place.

Any traffic is not safe and the volume of traffic and our inability to remedy the situation in a timely manner, even doing all we could during the start delay, led us to the difficult decision to cancel.

As cyclists and St. Louisans, it was truly heartbreaking. We never want to inconvenience or disappoint the Moonlight Ramblers, and we know that’s what happened last night.

As we were not able to provide you with a safe ride experience, we will be working through next steps in regards to refunds over the next few days.

We will honor the donations made to Trailnet. We’ve seen some negative comments aimed at Trailnet and we want to be clear that Trailnet’s involvement in Moonlight Ramble is as a charity beneficiary solely and they are not involved in the operations of the event. We proudly support the important work they do in St. Louis.”

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