10 years of Vermont Overland
“Begin at once to live, and count each separate day as separate life.” – Seneca
This is a look back on 10 years of Vermont Overland. We hope that you enjoy.
Vermont Overland was founded in the belief that all-surface exploration is transformative. We truly believe that it’s the best way to race, run, ride, and ultimately experience a landscape.
With Overland Registration Day approaching on January 1st, 2024, at 9 AM, we wanted to reflect on 10 years of memorable Overlands and look forward to many more to come. THANK YOU for being part of the adventure.
2014
At the time of the first Vermont Overland cycling event, the company had already been up and running for about 5 years as a guide service for Land Rover and outdoor enthusiasts throughout the state. The first-ever edition of The Overland (bike) was called “The Vermont Overland Grand Prix”. It was hosted in downtown Woodstock, VT, and featured a not-so-bad prize purse of $1,000 for 1st woman/man with a classic sprint finish underneath the Vermont Overland race banner along Central Street.
The original event was truly the brainchild of Peter Vollers. He was inspired by the possibility of combining the speed, spectacle, and, frankly, sex-appeal that was the New England criterium scene in the 1990’s with Vermont’s incredible gravel and class-4 roads. It was an unforgettable first year. If you were one of those 360 first-ever riders, we owe you a debt of gratitude. We all got a taste of something completely new and got excited for more.
2015
For the second edition of The Overland (bike), the event moved out of downtown Woodstock due to pushback from local town merchants. Bike racing, though beloved in other parts of the world, was new to this area. The race found its home for the next couple years at Saskadena Six (then called Suicide Six Ski Area) in Pomfret, VT. The larger venue welcomed more people, vendors, and an unforgettable finish down the face of the ski area.
2016
2016 was a special year for more reasons than one. For starters, it was arguably one of the coolest routes of the event's history. It showcased some of the area’s most beautiful, technical and challenging Class–4s; Wayside Rd, Sewall Brook Rd, and Grassy Lane to name a few. Peter’s former junior cycling team riders, Ansel Dickey and Brendan Rhim, who were then racing professionally, went 1-2 amidst a stacked field. It was a proud moment for them and their old coach!
2017
In 2017 the event was starting to become well-known across New England and the US as one of the premiere “gravel races” of the time. The event's date has always been positioned towards the end of August, normally right before Green Mountain Stage Race, and right before the New England Cyclo-Cross season. It started to slot into the overall calendar really well as we saw road racers end their season with some type-2 fun and cyclo-cross racers tune up the legs with something longer than the average cross race, and much more “techy” than any normal road race.
As the genre of “gravel” started to become more popular and thus started trying to define itself, so did we. 2017 was the only year that we did not have timed results for The Overland. We quickly realized that adventure, challenge, and racing yourself or others, is what we deeply believe in. So after 2017, results were here to stay. We also experimented with going vegan as event organizers… It wasn’t popular with the majority, but you all stuck with us, so thank you! We now offer multiple different meal options :)
2018
With four years of races under the umbrella of Vermont Overland, Peter Vollers moved his home to Reading, VT, and decided it was only be natural to bring the race to his very own backyard. It was a truly spectacular venue and course. The Vollers welcomed over 800 riders to their home and it felt like a back-yard-bbq-camp-out surrounding one big bicycle weekend. Those who were there in 2018 will vividly remember the fierce sting of Jenne Hill 1.4 mile into the 42 mile course.
2019
2019 was another special year for The Overland. It saw more people than ever before at one of our events and an ever more talented Vermont Overland 4x4 support crew. Brendan Rhim, home from The Tour of Utah (one of America's largest pro cycling stage races—still alive and well at the time) took home a memorable victory in front of his old coach. In terms of weather, course conditions, logistics, and team camaraderie, we all came away from 2019 with a high that would be hard to top.
2020
Saying that 2020 was hard from an event organizers’ perspective would be an understatement, but it still doesn’t really land well, or feel justified when you consider the global COVID-19 crisis that we all entered endured. Midsouth was the last event we attended that year and it was that very same weekend Peter made the call to cancel The Overland (bike) for 2020. In our mind 2020 still counts as a year in the events history because of the community we built during those hard times and creative ways we came up with to recreate safely outdoors. It wasn’t all doom and gloom.
2021
If you were one of the close-to-1500 people that towed the start line of The Overland (bike) in 2021, we don’t need to tell you that it was a truly special year for us.
To back track a bit, late in 2020 Peter Vollers moved to New Mexico with his wife Kim, who got her dream job at the Los Poblanos Historic Inn & Organic Farm. After getting settled in their new home and making new connections out west, Peter decided to hand the reins of Vermont Overland over to Ansel Dickey, who had been involved since retiring from professional road racing.
2021 was the first year that Ansel promoted the event solo, and being 8 years into a relationship with his now wife, Gertrude, he decided surprise her and everyone else that day by proposing to her on the start line. Spoiler alert: she said yes. If you were there, you’ll remember the poorly-timed and miss-forecasted torrential downpour that started promptly as the race rolled out from our new home venue in West Windsor, VT, Ascutney Outdoors.
2022
2022 was filled with extreme highs and extreme lows. After falling in love with the sport of running, due in large part to NorthWoods Athletics weekly group runs in Woodstock, VT, we launched a completely new event for us: The Overland TRAIL (run) which brought new faces, connections, and friendships into the fold.
The clear low, which without a doubt was the hardest, saddest, and most deeply tragic thing we have ever experienced as an organization, was the passing of Sule Kangangi during The Overland (bike) that year. His teammates John Kariuki and Jordan Schleck, brought over to the US to race SBT, Gravel Worlds and The Overland (bike) that year by one of their sponsors, Wahoo, went on to place 1st and 2nd.
To this day we cannot escape the sadness surrounding the tragedy and extend our continued condolences to Sule’s family. This post and this documentary sums a lot of our feelings.
2023
10 years is a long time for anyone or anything and with that amount of time comes a natural evolution and growth. After 2022 we had to decide if we wanted to continue The Overland (bike), or not. Ultimately we came to the realization that events like these have a deeply systemic positive impact on a vast amount of people in an exponential number of ways. While 2022 was tragic, it would only deepen the overall loss by discontinuing the event.
So, in 2023 we came back to the start line with only one goal on our mind: host a safe, well organized, and successful event. For us, that meant 500 less riders, revamped aid stations, 3 times the amount of police support and road closures, and extra grease on all chainlink connections that make a wild event like this work.
Upon reflection, which pulling together this article helped us realize, the 10th year of The Overland (bike) was the best event we’ve hosted thus far. And with Overland Registration Day approaching on January 1st, we only hope to improve, expand and deepen the adventure for years to come. Thank you for being part of it!
