This year’s Stowe Adaptive Mountain Bike Weekend was a blast and will be remembered by many participants as a weekend filled with purpose, determination, and exhilaration.
The collaborative event is organized and hosted annually in Stowe by Green Mountain Adaptive Sports in partnership with New England Disabled Sports (NEDS), Adaptive Sports Partners (ASP), and the Kelly Brush Foundation. These organizations recognize that collaboration on events like this strengthens their ability to better serve athletes, coaches, and volunteers. Plus, together, we are better!
Naomi Clark discovered a new sport to love! Photo: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Best Day Ever Movie
The weekend kicked off with a screening of the Best Day Ever movie, a powerful documentary that follows the stories of adaptive mountain bikers they navigate the relentless challenges of their disabilities and embrace the tremendous support, friendship, and joy they find in their rural Vermont riding community. Athletes, friends and family filled the movie room at Stowe Cider, and all truly enjoyed the movie, which was followed by a lively Q&A including emcee Rob Galloway, athletes Allie Bianchi and Ryan Manning, and partners Kenzie Brunner (STP), Ryan Baker-Dunn (RMT), and Dean Havelock (VMBA). A special thank-you to all of our panelists, our generous sponsor, Zuccarello & Associates, everyone who attended, and the many businesses who donated prizes for the raffle. Your support helped make the event a great success.
Katie Ahern cruising through the berms at the Driving Range. Photo: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
An Annual Get together
This year, the Stowe aMTB Weekend was held on August 21-23. Twenty three athletes from all over New England traveled to Stowe to participate in two days of adaptive mountain biking including a day of single track riding at Cady Hill Forest, and a morning of riding at the Driving Range in Bolton – the same exact location featured in the inspirational Best Day Ever movie!
Group shot from Saturday in Stowe in the 2026 bike kits from SDR. Photo: Mike Hitelman.
The athletes were split up into three groups to help spread everyone throughout the trail system and allow participants to progress at their own pace. This year, new riders were required to schedule riding time with NEDS prior to the event to develop basic skills and ensure they were properly fitted to the adaptive bikes they would use during the Stowe weekend. That proved to be a great decision, as newer riders arrived determined to continue their progression and ride alongside more advanced participants. Participants rode a variety of adaptive mountain bikes provided by NEDS and ASP including Bowheads, Bombers and Nukes, all equipped with an e-assist device.
Chris Young knows how to carve a ski, AND can ride a berm too! Photo: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur.
Riders for Stowe Trail Partnership (STP) led our groups on Saturday at Cady Hill Forest. Kudos to STP and VMBA for their hard work making the trails so accessible. It was a blast to ride so many great trails, and to lap Florence, at times taking air on some of the larger jumps. See the complete photo gallery from Saturday from Mike and Noah Hitelman here.
After a few post-ride beverages at the staging area, the athletes and their companions headed back to the campground for pizza, salads, and more much-appreciated time together.
Paul Crowell and Kerry Hussey of ASP teamed up to ride. Photo: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Sunday Fun Day at the Driving Range
No one seemed too bothered by the grey skies on Sunday morning, and the group headed to the Driving Range in Richmond, the world’s first fully adaptive-ready mountain bike trail network – designed with the help of adaptive riders, and completely accessible for adaptive mountain bikes (aMTBs). The stoked was high, and so were the nerves as few of the riders, or volunteers had ever ridden at the most anticipated venue. Rob Galloway, Ryan Baker-Dunn, and Michaela Cornbrooks led the groups, and Jeb Wallace-Brodeur captured the moments.
Tyler Ryan has already put over 300 miles on his new bike which he truly put to the test at the GMAS event! Photo: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Together, we persevered, we conquered, and ultimately, we had a blast! We can’t wait to come back next year and ride the few trails that we missed! Shout out to all involved in the design and construction of this incredible network of mountain bike trails. Enjoy the photo gallery from Jeb Wallace-Brodeur here.
Smiles for miles… Many happy laps for this group at the Driving Range. Photo: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
THANK YOU!
We wish to recognize everyone involved in the success of this event. Our community runs DEEP, and we saw that every minute of every day spent together.
Many thanks to our partners NEDS, ASP and the Kelly Brush Foundation, Stowe Trail Partnership, VMBA , Zuccarello & Associates, SDR (for our awesome bike jerseys), all the businesses who sponsored the jersey, and donated prizes to our raffle.
A HUGE shout out to Ranch Camp, Ski Essentials, and Mountain Ops for lending our volunteers e-bikes for the weekend so we could keep up! Also a big thank you to Piecasso, The Alchemist, Stowe Cider, and Trapps Brewery for providing us with ample supplies of our favorite Vermont products.
Allaire Doussan put the NEDS Nuke to the test, catching a “little” air at the Driving Range. Photo: Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
so Many incredible humans
Thanks to our volunteers! The list is a mile long – THANK YOU ALL! Special kudos to Jeb Wallace-Brodeur and Mike Hitelman for the photos, Kim Bean, Carol Brunjes, Edie Perkins, Jeff Kauffman, Jon Wehse, Geoff Krill, Shea Devine, Kerry Hussey, Nate Hanson, Kenzie Brunner, Bones, Sara Turner, Michele Mannino, the Andrews-Griffith family, and so many more amazing humans. So grateful!
Athletes, thank you for continuing to come to Stowe every year to ride – and soon to ski! Each and everyone of you makes this event special, and it’s incredible to see the camaraderie, the friendships, the teamwork, the networking, the information sharing that goes on. Being together makes us all stronger and better, and having you help recruit and support new athletes every year is amazing. You have all worked hard to become better riders, and wow, that alone made the riding so much more seamless and fun! Let’s do this again next year!
Can’t wait to do this again in 2027!
See you in 2027
Green Mountain Adaptive Sports will host this collaborative event again next year on August 20-22, 2027 and we welcome all who wish to partner, sponsor, volunteer, and participate. Save the date and reach out to Pascale for more information. Registration will open early May.
Please take a few minutes to view all of the awesome photos generously provided by Jeb Wallace-Brodeur here, and by Mike Hitelman here.
By Pascale Savard
Sept 3, 2026