Tributes flood in for Pat Malach on social media

Pat out on his bike (Image credit: Pat Malach)

Monday was a dark day when we found out that our colleague Pat Malach had died over the weekend at the age of 55.

Pat was more than just a coworker to us, he was a friend with a sharp wit, a dry and sometimes dark sense of humor, who even in the most stressful times could break up the tension with a joke.

It is with the heaviest of heart that I write to all of my cycling friends and family. Yesterday we lost our dear friend and colleague, Pat Malach. Pat’s sudden passing leaves the cycling world with a shocking silence echoed from the empty pages he was yet to write. I cannot express the sadness that I already feel by his absence. My good friend and travel partner will be terribly missed while time spent on the road will be forever changed. My most sincere and heartfelt condolences to his family and those close to him. @patmalach @cyclingnews_feed @velonews @cyclingtips Jonathan (John-O) Devich
A photo posted by @photogjono on Apr 21, 2020 at 4:04pm PDT

It's not often that you have a photo of the very moment you meet somebody, but this is the moment I met Pat Malach. I had just won the prologue of the 2011 Mount Hood Classic (teammate @scotttietzel was 2nd)--my first victory on the national level--for the Rio Grande Cycling Team, and it was a big moment in my career as I was chasing my first pro contract. I talked with Pat a lot that week as I led the race for 3 days, and it was the most I'd ever been interviewed before. Pat redefined my preconceptions about journalists, who are in fact not all looking for dirt or some way to quote you out of context. They can be kind people with a ready, genuine smile, too. We chatted many times as my career progressed, and he would go on to become the standard by which I judged all other cycling journalists. I wish now that I had told him that. I was looking forward to talking to him the next time our paths crossed about the joys of riding a bike, something he obviously rediscovered recently. His loss has been weighing on me today--the world is worse without him, that's for sure. Chad Haga
A photo posted by @thehagasaki on Apr 22, 2020 at 6:09am PDT

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