Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Hundreds of cyclists will return to Downtown LaGrange in October to help raise money and awareness for Multiple Sclerosis.

The Bike MS: Atlanta Peach Ride is scheduled to return to LaGrange on Saturday, Oct. 8 and Sunday Oct. 9. All routes will start and end at Wild Leap Brew Co. on Main Street in LaGrange.

The bike ride has been held in LaGrange for the last six years. The Atlanta Peach ride is the sole Bike MS ride in Georgia.

Atlanta Peach Ride Bike MS Manager Lora Hawk said the ride will include several courses for a wide variety of experience levels. The courses range from 21.6 miles to 100 miles with elevation changes ranging from 1,245 feet up to 6,452 feet.

In the past, the event has garnered upwards of 1,600 participants. Those numbers have dropped off in recent years because of COVID-19, when a virtual exercise bike ride was held instead. The organizers are still looking for more entrants.

“We currently have 185 participants registered,” Hawk said.

Cyclists can participate as individuals or in teams with friends, family or coworkers.

“We have corporate teams like Georgia Power, and then we have friends that get together to ride,” she said.

Hawk gave a shout out to one team in particular, The Slow Riders.

“They’re great. They do their own t-shirts and jerseys and that sort of thing. The team captain is a woman who lives with MS, so it’s a really unifying aspect of their team,” Hawk said. “They’re a bunch of friends and neighbors who get together to ride a team together.”

The Slow Riders have raised $9,480 for the 2022 Peach Ride, according the MS Society website. So far $114,125 has been raised for this year’s ride toward their goal of $500,000.

Online registration for the event ends Oct. 6 at midnight, but participants can register the day of the ride. Organizers ask for a fundraising minimum of $300. Children 12 and up can participate in the ride.

Bike MS is not a race. It’s just a fun event to raise funds for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which uses the money to fund research and education on multiple sclerosis.

Multiple sclerosis is a disease that attacks the nervous system and can cause physically disabilities.

To register for the Bike MS: Atlanta Peach ride or for more information, visit https://mssociety.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.event&eventID=1158.