Pan-Mass Challenge rolls through Rochester
From left: Barbara Buckley, Aubrianne and Max Feeney, Quinn Buckley, Logan Buckley, Maegan Buckley and Jaimey Buckley cheered on Pan-Mass Challenge riders on Saturday, Aug. 1. Photos by Grace Roche
Over 6,000 riders participated in this year's ride. 
Rochester was one of the towns bikers rode through on their way to Bourne. 
Riders turn onto Neck Road from North Avenue. 
Cyclists pedaled up to 100 miles during the ride. 
One rider wears a flower lei as part of his outfit.
From left: Barbara Buckley, Aubrianne and Max Feeney, Quinn Buckley, Logan Buckley, Maegan Buckley and Jaimey Buckley cheered on Pan-Mass Challenge riders on Saturday, Aug. 1. Photos by Grace Roche
Over 6,000 riders participated in this year's ride.
Rochester was one of the towns bikers rode through on their way to Bourne.
Riders turn onto Neck Road from North Avenue.
Cyclists pedaled up to 100 miles during the ride.
One rider wears a flower lei as part of his outfit.
ROCHESTER — Thousands of cyclists pedaled across Rochester on Saturday en route from Wellesley or Worcester to Bourne as part of the Pan-Mass Challenge, cheered on by residents.
The Buckley family was among the onlookers supporting the riders on their way through town, taking over the corner of Neck Road and North Avenue to thank ride participants.
The family’s yearly tradition began when Jaimey Buckley was diagnosed with leukemia and wanted to show his support for the riders raising money to support the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
During that first year he was undergoing extensive chemotherapy and was nearly too weak and sick to leave the house.
“I put an umbrella over him for the sun, and he just got in his cheer — very weak, yelling, ‘Thank you,’” his wife Barbara Buckley said. “That was 10 years ago, and ever since we just keep coming out here to thank everybody.”
In the years since, they’ve been joined by friends and family and have become an unofficial water stop for riders.
Barbara Buckley said it’s “amazing” to have the ride pass through Rochester and people are “just as grateful that we're out here cheering them on as we are for them riding.”
The family brings water, watermelon and other supplies to help bikers get through the August heat.
“It's just a good little spot to cheer them on and they appreciate it,” she said. “It's cool, Rochester's fantastic to see a (Pan-Mass Challenge) ride come through.”
