Green Mountain Adaptive Sports hosted its first organized Adaptive Mountain Bike Ride on Sunday, September 19th, 2021 at the Trapp Family Outdoor Center in Stowe, Vermont. A dozen adaptive riders joined us for an awesome day which included a group rides, a bbq, and a lot of networking and exploration. Scroll down this page to view the photo gallery.
UPDATE: Next year’s event will be held on Sunday, September 18, 2022. If you are not already on the mailing list, contact Pascale Savard at pascale@greenmtnadaptive.org to receive updates about the 2022 event.
To view photos from Terry Downey from the 2021 event, click here.
For the 2021 event, Green Mountain Adaptive Sports (GMAS) partnered with Trapp Family Lodge, Spaulding Rehab Sports Center, and Bike-on.com to bring this new component to the Trapp Cabin Trail Race, a very successful annual running event, and important fundraiser for Green Mountain Adaptive Sports.
GMAS’s Mission is to serve persons with disabilities living in or visiting Vermont by sponsoring participation in adaptive sports and recreational programs.
The course for the adaptive ride was slightly different from the runners’ course to better suit the needs of hand cycles. The 3 mile route loops around Sugar Road and Russell Knoll Track, both wider and undulating logging roads also used for Nordic skiing in the winter.
The Trapp Cabin Adaptive Mountain Bike Ride started at 9:15 am, shortly after the 5km, 10km and Half-Marathon runners are on course, and was not a timed event this year. Riders demoing bikes arrived at 8:30 am to get assigned to bikes for the 9:15 am start. All courses shared the same start and finish areas.
“In the past, a few of GMAS’s athletes have participated in the trail race, but we wanted to expand participation by including a course suitable for wheelchair users,” comments Pascale Savard, GMAS Board Member. “Adding the adaptive mountain bikes means that more adaptive athletes were able to participate this year. This was a blast for the athletes, and the spectators. Hats off to our friends at Trapps for making that happen for us.”
Many of the adaptive athletes rode their own mountain bikes, and the Spaulding Rehab Sports Centers and Bike-on.com generously brought additional bikes. Riders tried different bikes, including two Lashers ATH-FS, a Maddiline Race XE, a Bowhead Reach E-Mountain bike, a Nuke, a Bomber (prone hand-cycle), a Stinger (recumbent leg-cycle), a Trident Fat-tire Trike, and a One-off. The bikes were also available for anyone to demo after the event.
“The Trapp Family Outdoor Center is really looking forward to the Trapp Cabin Trails Races this year. But most of all we’re excited to welcome the adaptive mountain bikers who will be on our trails for the first time! We hope everyone enjoys the course and will return to race or tour in the future,” adds Sam von Trapp, director and executive vice president at Trapp Family Lodge.
For more information, or to volunteer at the next year’s event please contact pascale@greenmtnadaptive.org.
To register as an adaptive athlete, please complete the form below.