The History of Team NEO Bike MS

For the last four years I’ve been leading something called Team NEO Bike MS. Here’s a bit of a back story

Bike MS

I’ll start with Bike MS. Bike MS is a charity ride that benefits the National MS Society. There are around 70 different events across the country, and they have been taking place for over 30 years. You may have heard of it as the MS150, as the ride is typically two days and a total of 150 miles. But because the distances can vary and you don’t have to ride 150 miles, it was changed to a “less intimidating” name is Bike MS. The largest event is the BP MS 150 (so big they were allowed to keep the old name) that goes from Houston to Austin. In 2018 it raised over $12 million dollars for the National MS Society!

Colorado has the third-largest Bike MS event – Bike MS Colorado. The route is from Westminster to Fort Collins (Colorado State Univeristy) on day 1 and back via a different route on day 2. There are around 2500 cyclists on this ride. It is extremely well supported with stocked aid stations every 10-15 miles, SAG (support and gear) vehicles to help if you have an issues, and a big party and the start & finish lines.

Day 2 start of the 2015 Colorado Bike MS

I’d known about Bike MS well before I got involved as another Colorado Springs triathlete/coach had a team, but I could never participate. The Loveland Lake to Lake triathlon was usually the same weekend, and that was a Team In Training race. (I either participated or raced it – it is my favorite Olympic distance race!) Come 2014 I’m diagnosed with MS, no longer coaching for TNT, and recovering from 2 hip surgeries so I don’t have the race commitment (sort of). Turns out an athlete I was coaching couldn’t do the swim part of the race, so we switched her to a relay and I did the swim (had a great swim, too!) Loveland is close to Fort Collins, so I had plenty of time to make it to an afternoon volunteer shift. I experience the Day 1 Team Village festivities, overnighted in a Colorado State University dorm room, and had a full day of volunteering on course on day two. I hung out on a rural intersection just outside Longmont.

Team NEO is Born

After seeing what a great event it was, I was excited to have a team in 2015. Bike MS was the 303 Cycling charity ride of choice so I offered to be the team captain. 13 of us raised a bit over $10,000… and I knew we could do even more. In 2016, Team NEO (My initials are NEO) was officially formed and since then we’ve raised about another $140,000. Each rider has a $400 fundraising minimum ($300 , but many exceed this minimum. In 2018 we had our best year yet, raising over $63,000. We also had a team at Bike MS Wyoming that raised over $5000.

Why Join Us?

Do you like to ride your bike? Do you like to feel good about supporting a valuable charitable organization? That’s what we are… Team NEO is a group of people who want to support the National MS Society and ride bikes. And in reality, you don’t have to even ride – you can volunteer at the event and enjoy the post-ride celebrations. We support each other, have group fundraisers, have group rides, and want to be a part of the Colorado Springs community to bring MS awareness and raise money to end this horrible disease. Living in Colorado Springs is not even a requirement – we’ve got quite a few riders from all over the state, and last year we even had a virtual rider from Scotland on the team!

Group photo of the 2018 Team NEO at the Colorado Bike MS — The 2018 Team ready to ride!

If you would like to ride Bike MS Colorado or Wyoming and be a part of a team that supports you and the community, join Team NEO!

We also throw a really great fundraiser – a Lip Sync Contest & Silent Auction! The 2019 event will be Thursday, April 11th at the Ivywild School Gym. If you are in the Colorado Springs area, you don’t want to miss it!