About Us
About Stowe Mountain Bike Academy
SMBA is a premier riding program dedicated to the art and sport of mountain biking.
At Stowe Mountain Bike Academy (SMBA), we believe that mountain biking is not just a hobby or a recreational activity, but a way of life. We are passionate about sharing our knowledge and expertise with riders who are eager to improve their skills, challenge themselves, and experience the thrill of riding.
Our programs are tailored to meet the needs of riders at every stage of their journey. Whether you are a beginner who wants to learn the basics of mountain biking or an experienced rider looking to refine your technique, our expert instructors are here to guide you.
We believe that mountain biking is not only about conquering trails and pushing your limits, but also about building confidence, building character, and fostering a love for the outdoors.
Our instructors instill values of discipline, perseverance, and respect in our students, teaching them not just how to ride, but how to be responsible and conscientious riders.
Join us and discover the exhilaration of mountain biking while honing your skills and immersing yourself in the vibrant mountain biking community. Come ride with us and experience the thrill of Stowe Mountain Bike Academy.
Located in the beautiful mountain town of Stowe, Vermont, our academy offers comprehensive training programs for riders of all ages and skill levels.
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Founded in 2018 as Stowe Youth Cycling, Stowe Mountain Bike Academy emerged two seasons later as parents demanded the same high-quality mountain bike instruction as their youth riders. Stowe Mountain Bike Academy now serves riders ages 5 and older and rides with visitors from all over the world.
We are dedicated to cultivating a lifelong passion for the sport of cycling with each person we reach.
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The SMBA coaching staff come from a diverse mix of bike racing backgrounds ranging from cyclocross, BMX and triathlon to cross country, enduro and downhill. We think our coaches are excellent mentors and extremely well-rounded individuals who enjoy nothing more than sharing the sport they love.
From First Aid/CPR and/or Wilderness First Aid or Wilderness First Responder and SafeSport certification, our coaching team has the most knowledge in the region. All our full-time coaches are Bicycle Instructor Certification Program (BICP) and/or Professional Mountain Bike Instructor Association (PMBIA) certified.
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SMBA is committed to the growth of mountain biking and accessibility to the trails for all riders. We operate collaboratively with many local businesses and organizations to promote ridership. Our partners, which are leaders in encouraging conscientious participation in sport, are: the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA), Flyin’ Ryan Foundation, Vermont Outdoor Business Alliance, Vermont Youth Cycling, Pride Rides Vermont, and the Kelly Brush Foundation.
Additionally, we abide by the Cycling Industry Pledge which “holds companies accountable to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the cycling community.”
Whether your a seasoned rider or just getting started on trails, SMBA is excited to work with you!
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We offer a range of programs, from introductory skills clinics and after-school programs to advanced race training, private lessons and guided rides, ensuring that there is something for everyone.
Whether you are a recreational rider looking to have fun on the trails or a competitive racer aiming for the podium, Stowe Mountain Bike Academy is the ultimate destination for mountain bike instruction.
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Phone: 802.622.1562
Email: info@stowemtb.com
Location: Cady Hill Lodge
Address: 511 Mountain Road
Jake Whitlock
Hailing from Nahant Massachusetts, Coach Jake grew up riding BMX and later found mountain biking just before attending the University of Vermont. In college he raced downhill, enduro, dual slalom, and short track XC. Jake still enjoys racing enduro and finding creative freeride lines. When he is not riding his bike, you can find him hiking through the woods making rad bike videos of fellow riders.
Racing Discipline: Enduro / Downhill
Jonathan Page
Jonathan was born and raised in Tilton, NH where he got his start riding bikes with his best friend. When he was 14, he entered a local time trial on a bike with homemade time trial bars and was hooked on racing forever. Throughout the next 26 years, Jonathan traveled the world on the US National road and cyclocross teams as well as many amateur and professional teams, including an Italian cyclocross team, a professional Polish mtb team, a professional American mountain bike team, and a professional Belgian cyclocross team.
Jonathan lived in Germany and Switzerland for a year each, learning to race European cyclocross, before making a decision to move to Belgium to race against the best of the best. He moved to Belgium in 2002, promising his new wife "just one year". Instead, the newlyweds bought a house and started a family while Jonathan raced against the best in the world in cyclocross as well as road and mountain biking in the off season. More than 13 years later, they moved back to the States, first to Utah and now to Vermont.
Jonathan's top results include: 9 total National Championships between road and cyclocross, 2nd at Elite Cyclocross World Championships, several top 10s in World Cups, the first ever UCI European win for an American in cyclocross, top 15 U23 Paris Roubaix, and many UCI wins on American soil. Jonathan got to see a lot of the world from the seats of his bicycles. He is so thankful for the opportunity to pass some of his knowledge of and love for racing bikes to the next generation of cyclists.
Kelly Murphey
Although originally hailing from the mid-Atlantic, Kelly spent his formative years in Northern Michigan exploring The Great Lakes State’s sandy backroads and singletrack on two wheels. After moving to Upstate New York’s Catskill Mountains in 2006, Kelly began his competitive cycling career as a triathlete, competing in races throughout New York and later Western North Carolina and Vermont.
In 2008, while attending college in Western North Carolina, he dove headlong into the world of mountain biking and began to hone his riding skills on the rugged singletrack of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 2011, Kelly and his wife completed an east-west alpine singletrack traverse of Switzerland after which, in 2012, he was inspired to move to one of the mountain bike strongholds of America, Moab, Utah, where he had the opportunity to ride and train on some of the rowdiest terrain in the Southwestern U.S. Since landing in Vermont in 2013, Kelly has taken the opportunity to seek out some of the world’s finest singletrack, riding trails in Newfoundland, Patagonia, Wales, Quebec, New Zealand and Iceland.
Kelly is a BICP and PMBIA-certified mountain bike instructor and graduate of the National Outdoor Leadership School and International Wilderness Leadership School. He has worked all over the country as an outdoor educator, professional trail builder, wildland firefighter, mountain guide, forester, homebuilder, and snowboard instructor. Kelly has been with SMBA since its inception in 2018 and enjoys coaching and guiding riders of all ages and ability levels. When not pedal pushing, Kelly can be found dodging trees on his snowboard or building trail in the woods. Kelly lives in Stowe with his wife, Rachel, and border collie, Ellie.
Kim Quinland
Kim is a native Vermonter, and currently lives in Winooski, VT where she also has a graphic design business. She juggles her design work with professional mountain bike racing and training, pottery, and coaching!
She’s been riding mountain bikes since 2007, and started racing in 2011 with an Eastern States Cup downhill event at Killington. She jumped into the early east coast Enduro scene after that, and fell further in love with the sport and the supportive community. Since then she’s raced in Elite UCI local and national cross-country races, dabbled in stage racing with the Pisgah and Trans-sylvania 5-day events, and earned the women’s overall title for the 2019 ESC Enduro series.
Kim currently rides for Outdoor Gear Exchange, and is sponsored by Shimano, Julbo Eyewear, Vittoria Tires, and NEXT Cycling. She enjoys helping with local mountain bike club rides, mentoring kids on bikes, and supporting more women on bikes, and is really excited to be a part of the SMBA crew this season!
Shannon Walton
Shannon is the owner of Ultimate Mental Edge, a mental skills training practice that works with athletes of all ages and skill levels. Her interest in the area of sport psychology developed out of a passion for sports and the minds driving the athletes. She started out playing soccer through high school and college and now you can find her biking and skiing as her primary passions.
Ultimate Mental Edge is designed to help athletes improve their performance through mental preparation and skills training. UME focuses on the mind, body and social components to provide a complete approach to your training. Her goal is to provide a supportive relationship that is focused on improving the athlete as a whole. This is achieved by creating a partnership to find what best suites the athlete to achieve their performance goals. Each plan is individualized and tailored to meet the specific needs of the athlete to maximize their success.
Sammy Hedlund
Sammy grew up in Minnesota and started racing mountain bikes in high school. He went to school at UVM, where he served as the president of the cycling team. There, he raced road, cyclocross, XC, and downhill, leading the team to two national titles. He continues to race all disciplines, but excels at enduro, where he is ranked in the top 300 riders globally. Since graduating, he has served as UVM's Mountain Bike Coach, and is excited to bring his experience to SMBA and tow around a crew of rippers at enduro races this summer.
Ross Scatchard
Ross caught the mountain biking bug at the age of 12 after a season of watching his older brother, Brooke, compete in the classic New England cross country races. Ross was fortunate to join the Earl's Cyclery Junior Team and then Bliss Racing with a great group of riders and their father figure coach, Hans Jenny. This close knit group cultivated the fun and passion for riding, training, trail building, and racing. During his time on Bliss Racing, Ross claimed multiple Junior and Elite State Champion titles, podiums at NORBA National races, as well as many regional ECCC collegiate wins and podiums at national championships. Not only did Ross have a great time racing all disciplines in the collegiate races, but he also started the Allegheny College Cycling Club to help get more students in on the fun.
After several years of working in the Nordic ski community and helping run Bliss Racing, Ross moved to Stowe to live closer to the (arguably) best trails and mountains around. With the help of some dedicated cycling community members, Ross started as Head Coach and Program Director of Stowe Mountain Bike Academy. In the span of one year, Ross completed his Level 1, 2, and 3 BICP Instructor Certifications and was the first person under BICP to take, and pass, a level 2 and 3 course back to back. To further develop his coaching progression, in 2021, Ross completed a PMBI Level 1 certification and is also a USA Cycling Level 3 coach and Wilderness First Aid Certified. Now, he enjoys sharing what he has learned in his cycling career with riders of all ages.
Rosy Metcalfe
Rosy grew up in the Berkshires, spending a lot of time running around in the woods. When she was 23 years old, she fell in love with mountain biking after a day of riding downhill at Diablo Freeride Park (Mountain Creek) in New Jersey in 2005. She was lucky enough to have some wonderful friends who helped her put together a hand-me-down Iron Horse Sunday with a bunch of used parts so she could keep on riding.
She raced downhill as an amateur here and there from 2007 through 2010 until she started grad school. Afterward, she spent a few summers working as a mountain bike instructor for the Dirt Divas program through Vermont Works for Women and worked as a social worker in the Massachusetts public school system when she wasn't playing out playing on her bike.
When Thunder Mountain Bike Park opened in 2015, she started spending more time on her "old" Sunday again since it was so close to home in Western Massachusetts. After winning a couple of Cat 1 DH races in 2015, she did her first pro DH and enduro races for Team Bicycle Express during the 2016 season. In 2017, she got married to her husband, Will, raced a few enduros, went on a road trip across Canada, and spent almost a month riding in BC. For 2018, she was the series champion for the CLIF Enduro East.
For 2019, in order to share her love of mountain biking with more people, she decided to shift her focus to instruction and coaching. She earned her Level 1 and Level 2 certifications for the Professional Mountain Bike Instructors Association (PMBIA) as well as a Wilderness First Responder certification from Wilderness Medical Associates. Rosy is an ambassador for Bicycle Express and Bolton Valley Resort and also volunteers for the Fellowship of the Wheel doing mountain bike trail advocacy. When she is not doing mountain bike-related things, she is either working for RiseVT in Burlington, skiing and eating tasty food with Will or napping.