On Sept. 19, more than 1,000 cyclists will gather in Historic New Bern for what is the largest Bike MS ride in the Southeast.
Gene Caffrey, who has been coming to New Bern for more than a decade, shared his story ahead of his return.
Bike MS started in 1980 when an organizer and his son rode 150 miles from Duluth to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Originally known as the MS 150, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society fundraiser grew into the nation’s largest charity cycling series, raising more than $1.3 billion across dozens of annual routes.
Last year’s Bike MS event welcomed participants from 29 states and two countries, showcasing New Bern as a destination for cyclists while generating meaningful economic impact for the community. The event also features the only dedicated gravel route in the entire Bike MS series.
Caffrey, a Cary resident living with multiple sclerosis who will be participating in this year’s ride, was diagnosed in 2010 after losing feeling in his legs while in the middle of an Ironman triathlon. Due to high temperatures and humidity, he can go from being capable of doing almost anything to struggling to move at all.
Caffrey has spent years turning cycling and endurance sports into both a personal challenge and a way to raise awareness and funding for multiple sclerosis research, bringing him back to New Bern for the Bike MS ride, an event he has participated in since 2012.
“It gives me the ability to spread awareness and talk about MS and how important this is,” Caffrey said.
Before being diagnosed, Caffrey said he participated in sports ranging from running and baseball to bodybuilding. He returned to running and cycling in the late 1990s and early 2000s and eventually began competing in marathons and triathlons.
By 2008 and 2009, he was competing in Ironman events, which are long-distance multisport races consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run.
During the 2009 Ironman Florida, Caffrey had swum 1.2 miles in the Gulf of Mexico when he said he could barely feel his legs. He continued the event as best he could with his arms and hips, assuming that he was just cramping.
Then, during the 112-mile bike course, Caffrey experienced numbness, unusual sensations and cramping. All of these symptoms he attributed to the high demands of endurance racing, but eventually he could barely feel his feet and shuffled his way through the run.
Despite these challenges, Caffrey said he still finished the race and even beat his personal record. However, over the following months, he said the numbness traveled from his feet upward, eventually reaching his hips and sternum.
His doctors ordered MRIs and found lesions on his brain and spine that suggested MS, a disease in which the immune system attacks the central nervous system and damages the protective covering around nerves. Caffrey said doctors told him he could live a normal life, but that he would likely need to find a “new normal.”
Caffrey began researching the disease on his own and looking for stories of people who continued exercising after an MS diagnosis. Eventually, he embraced what became a central philosophy in his life: “movement is medicine.”
After moving to North Carolina in 2011, Caffrey found an active community of runners and cyclists, along with events supporting the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Those connections eventually led him to Bike MS and, specifically, the New Bern ride.
Since 2012, Caffrey said he has met people at the New Bern Bike MS event who have remained part of his life throughout the year. Riders, caregivers, supporters and people working with the MS Society gather in an environment where everyone brings a different experience with the disease.
During a training run in North Carolina, Caffrey said he had traveled about 5 miles from home when he realized his legs were becoming exhausted and his MS symptoms were catching up with him. As he turned around, he began repeating a phrase in his head: “every step beats MS.”
Caffrey made it home safely all on his own and later made that message into a tattoo by adapting the Ironman “M-dot” tattoo into one that also incorporates an “S” into the design to represent MS.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when many cycling events were canceled, Caffrey began riding 100 miles every weekend to raise awareness. He kept the streak going for 76 consecutive weeks before developing pneumonia, which caused him to stop for a brief period.
Caffrey has also taken on major climbs as part of his efforts to raise awareness, including Mount Mitchell in North Carolina, Mount Washington in New Hampshire and Mount Blue Sky in Colorado, which rises to more than 14,000 feet.
A week after the New Bern event, Caffrey planned to head toward Greensboro for the Tour de Tanglewood, another major cycling event in the region. Later in the year, as temperatures drop, he plans to return to ultra-distance cycling.
In October, he expects to compete in the Psycho 48 in Bayboro, a short distance from New Bern. The event offers six-, 12-, 24- and 48-hour races, with riders completing a 35-mile loop and competing to cover the most distance within their chosen time.
Last year, Caffrey said, he covered about 234 miles during the event, with only six minutes of stoppage time.
Caffrey said that when he was younger, he used to view MS as a disease that inevitably landed a person in a wheelchair, unable to move. Advances in treatment and research, he said, have changed that prognosis for many people diagnosed with MS.
“I’m going to be that 80-year-old guy that’s still riding,” Caffrey said. “And if I can’t do it the way I’m doing it now, I’ll just find another way to do it.”