It was a warm afternoon in 2001 in a makeshift parking lot off Vermont Route 2 in Bolton. Almost 600 riders of all ages and abilities were gathered to take on the prologue of the inaugural Green Mountain Stage Race. Among them were some of the best riders in North America, including the McCormack brothers, Frank and Mark, with dozens of major titles between them, and the brilliant climber, Scott Moninger. Also in the mix were elite masters racers and riders ranging through various categories down to 17 unlicensed novices competing in a citizens category. The route: a short but, in places, painfully steep climb up the access road to the Bolton Valley ski area.
For 14 years until 2000, Vermont bike racing on Labor Day weekend was a mainstay on the annual cycling calendar, under the banner of the Killington Stage Race. But when financial issues forced the KSR's shutdown, organizers of the GMSR jumped in to fill the gap in the national cycling schedule. After all, riders were already used to the idea of coming at summer's end to Vermont for a long weekend of stage racing. In addition, the Burlington Criterium and the two-gap Mad River Road Race had been around for a while, so the idea of racing in the Mad River Valley and Vermont's queen city was nothing new. Moninger claimed the title of the first GMSR champion among the elite men.
What about the elite women? Early the next summer, while out on a casual ride, one of the GMSR organizers ran into Canadian cyclist Genevieve Jeanson, at the top of Appalachian Gap. Her powerful Rona team had come from its home base in Quebec to the Mad River Valley for a hill-training session. It was suggested that she might want to try the GMSR, and when she did, holy smokes. For the next two years, 2002 and 2003, she blew the field away. Her coup de grace: In Stage 2 in 2002, she finished atop App Gap, in a solo breakaway, almost 17 minutes ahead of the next rider.
Glory is fleeting. Later it was found that she’d been doping for years, tainting her exemplary GMSR exploits.
Jeanson was the first of among a host of strong Canadians to win the elite women's race; it wasn't until the 2007 race that Vermonter Amy Dombroski became the first American winner.
The next year, an American woman was a winner, too, in the novice Cat 3/4 field. Evelyn Stevens was taking a break from her life in the New York financial world to explore her interest in bike racing. She won the opening time trial by a comfortable margin. But it wasn't until Stage 2, with its emphasis on climbing, that her talent came to the fore.
On a solo break, nearing the top of App Gap, she passed the leaders of the women's elite field, which had started five minutes ahead of her field. A message was sent: Stevens was something special. Four years later, she was representing the U.S. at the London Olympics, where, in a pre-race interview, she credited the GMSR for helping launch her career.
Organizing a stage race comes with obvious challenges -- getting local permits, making sure courses are open and safe to ride, securing sponsors, recruiting police, officials, and volunteers, etc. But no challenge was greater than preparations for the 2011 race. Five days before the race, Tropical Storm Irene pummeled Vermont, causing more than $700 million in damage to the state's roadways.
One sensible option would have been to cancel the race. Many folks in the Mad River Valley thought local flood-recovery efforts shouldn’t be distracted by a bike race. But race organizers saw an opportunity to make a statement to the world about Vermont's ability to bounce back from hardship. Also, the community benefited from racers donating $40,000 toward local flood-recovery efforts.
The race was growing, with a total of more than 900 riders at a high point. That growth was not only in size but in prestige. Over the years, the elite men's race has attracted numerous riders who have gone on to solid careers on the World Tour in Europe. Typical was a guy like Canadian Hugo Houle, who, after competing in the GMSR, became a full-time pro in Europe, riding in the Tour de France six times and winning a stage on a breakaway in 2022.
The greatest growth in prestige came in the junior race. The first GMSR junior to make a mark as a successful international competitor was Nate Brown, the 2008 winner. After turning pro, Brown competed in the Tour de France in 2017 and briefly wore the King of the Mountains polka-dot jersey. By 2015, the junior field winner was Canadian Derek Gee, now a top professional in Europe. A year later, prominent among the 90 starters was current European star Matteo Jorgensen. Both Gee and Jorgenson were top-10 finishers in the 2025 Tour de France.
The GMSR is not just a bike race but an anthology of stories filled with drama, humor, anguish, and pathos. And sometimes silliness -- like the story of a rider forced on a bet by a fellow rider to make the climb up App Gap carrying a waffle iron. Or the time when one of the top women riders stopped at a special tire-repair pit on the dirt road in Bristol and dismounted to chat and flirt with the pit crew stationed there, knowing she could socialize with the fellas and still make the time cut.
There was the story, sadly, of veteran rider Anne-Marie Miller crashing badly on one stage and, after release from the hospital with a concussion, returning to ride the next stage, only to crash again. Or, comically, the times -- more than once -- when riders crossed the line at the top of App Gap and executed wheelies while other finishers were gasping for air, acting dazed and confused, and lying prostrate in agony in the parking area.
Bike races come and go, but now, a quarter of a century old, the GMSR has proven its longevity, and there is no end in sight. Another 25 years? Tune in again in the year 2051.
