Atec’s Senior Mechanical Engineer John Haschke will be participating in his TENTH BP MS 150 ride this weekend (April 18th and 19th)!
For those not familiar with the BP MS 150, it’s a huge fundraising bike ride created by the MS (Multiple Sclerosis) Society South Central Region. For 2 days, riders bike their way from Houston to Austin (that’s 180 miles!) in an effort to advocate and fundraise for the thousands of families affected by MS.
John, who has been with Atec for 37 years, is an avid rider, sometimes making his morning commute on his trusty steed. “If it’s the middle of the week and I don’t have any meetings, I’ll ride in to work sometimes,” John said, “also the weather has to be nice, you know.”
John’s involvement with MS 150 started years ago at his church. “There were several people at my church that I was friends with and they started doing it. So that’s when I started. 2005 is when I got my first road bike, and 2006 was my first MS150.” he explained.
We asked him how his first MS 150 ride went. He reminisced, “[my first ride] was a pretty good ride, except about 12 miles from Austin I had a crash. A lady in front of me lost control of her bike and fell over and I was about 5 feet behind her. I jammed on the brake and did a cart-wheel over her. I scraped my knee a bit, but I didn’t damage my bike!”
Luckily he came away from that harrowing experience with only a few bruises as well as a deep-rooted sense of rider safety. That’s why, for Haschke and many other MS 150 riders, there’s a big emphasis on safety and riders are encouraged to participate in training rides before the event.
“For 12 Saturdays, we train with other people and try to instill in yourself and the other riders proper etiquette and safety,” Haschke explained, “Many years—10 years—I’ve seen some accidents and there’s quite a few bicyclists out there. You just have to be very careful and very observant of people around you.”
So, as John prepares for his big ride this coming Saturday, we’d like everyone to send some good vibes his way! Out of the 100 Bike MS events, BP MS 150 is by far the largest (last year saw approximately 13,000 riders). So this year is primed to be the biggest MS 150 ride to date. But John is no rookie to this; and we’re certain that the same dedication, endurance and resourcefulness he projects here at Atec will be on full display come April 18th.
Oh, and one more thing: If you’d like to make a donation to the MS Society, please do so here.
