WILLIAMSBURG, Va. -- CBS6 will be fielding a team once again for the Bike MS event on June 5 in Williamsburg.
Casey Kasko, the Bike MS manager says Colonial Crossroads 2021 will look a little different because it will be a one-day event, and will start and end in Williamsburg instead of Richmond.
“Normally we ride to Williamsburg on Saturday night, spend the night and ride out of Williamsburg on Sunday,” said Kasko. "This year we’re starting in Williamsburg at 7:15 in the morning, and we'll have a rollout start, so everyone is not bunched up together."
“We have two routes this year: a short route which is 33 miles, and a longer route, a ‘metric century,’ which is 62 miles, and most of the route is on the Virginia Capital Trail, so it’s traffic-free and very easy to get involved,” said Kasko. “For newer cyclists especially, it's a pretty easy route which is a nice way to introduce people to Bike MS.”
The MS Society is still accepting registrations. There is a $300 fundraising minimum for all cyclists. You can find more information here.
Kasko points out that the MS Society is still trying to bounce back from 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic all but shut down all their big events.
“Like many events last year we did have to go virtual,” Kasko said. “We were able to pivot pretty quickly, and still raise a significant amount of funds. But in a normal year, we raise about $800,000 with this ride. Biking tends to be our premier fundraiser for the National MS Society, so having most of our events last year go virtual really took a hit.”
“As a national campaign, we usually raise about $68 million, but our goal this year, not knowing what the world would look like in 2021, we have a $38 million goal. So we’re still feeling the impact of the pandemic but hoping, as we move through 2021, that things get back to the two-day by events in September and October.”
