Saturday’s 50-, 75- and 100-mile MS Bike Riders experienced frustration Saturday when at least 130 riders experience flat tires because someone had scattered tacks along the route.

Ride director Dani Clayton said that no one is certain where the tacks were spread, but that it was likely along the 8- through 15-mile stretch.

Gene Carleton, who was operating the Performance Bicycles bicycle repair station at Rest Stop 2, said he had changed “forty flats at least” at his station, while Clayton said stops 3 and 4 were “inundated with tires.”

Carleton’s work table had a handful of tacks he’d pulled out of inner tubes and a cardboard box beside the workstation was overflowing with damaged innertubes.

Some bicyclists also were reporting flat tires at Rest Stop 1, while others changed their own tires on the route.

It was difficult to know exactly where the tacks had been strewn because they are hard to see, Clayton noted, and because the tacks would not immediately blow out tires. Rather, they create leaks causing the bicycles to slowly lose air over a distance of a few miles.

She said this has been the first time such an incident has taken place at the 29-year-old event and, that she hopes, it will be a one-time incident.

“People are coming from 26 different states to do this event,” she said, “and this is just an unfortunate thing to have happen as their first experience here.”

She said she loves New Bern and the support the community has for MS. “It’s kind of shocking to have someone from the community do this,” she said.

“It’s a bone-headed thing,” she said. “Someone could get seriously injured. There could be a wreck. There could be a lot of repercussions.”

Law enforcement has been notified of the incident.

Clayton said Sunday’s route, which takes riders to Oriental, will be checked. “Our plan is just to check the road as closely as possible tomorrow, especially early on.”

She said that, while the event is mostly positive and greatly enjoyed, this incident has definitely thrown a shadow over it. “This is something we’re going to hear a lot about going into next year,” she said.

Contact Bill Hand at bill.hand@newbernsj.com, 252-635-5677, and follow him @BillHandNBSJ.