RED BANK: BIKERS TO RIDE FOR INJURED PAL

A ride for injured racer Cole Porter, below, is planned for Tuesday evening, beginning at the Red Bicycle Studio in Red Bank, above. (Click to enlarge)

Friends of Cole Porter, the Shrewsbury man who was seriously injured in a cycling accident during Sunday’s Tour de Fair Haven, are planning what one called a “suffer fest” bike ride in his honor Tuesday evening.

Dubbed Ride for Cole, the event leaves the Red Bicycle Studio in Red Bank at 5:30 p.m. As of late Monday night, more than 50 riders had indicated they were participating.

Porter, a regular in Tuesday night group rides out of the shop, is said to have suffered a brain injury when he collided with a race official during the first of six scheduled races Sunday.

Witnesses to the accident, which occurred shortly after 7 a.m., said Porter was just completing the first lap of a nine-lap amateur’s race when a race official stepped into the roadway to retrieve a walkie-talkie that the official had unsuccessfully tried to hand off to the passing pace car.

Porter was transported by helicopter to Jersey Shore Medical Center, where friends said he remained in intensive care Monday night.

The identity of the race official, who was reported to have been hospitalized at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, has not been disclosed by authorities. He has been identified elsewhere in cycling chat rooms as Dan Donnelly, chief referee.

Fair Haven police declined to comment on the accident or to confirm the identities of the two injured men, citing the federal Health Insurance Portability law rules on medical privacy.

Race organizer Michele Berger did not respond to a request for comment on the incident.

On a Facebook page set up to organize the ride, friend Clifton Duhon writes that Porter “would always tell me how much of a suffer fest [the Tuesday night] ride was, and how much he loved it.”