New start: Pan-Mass Challenge bicycle event to move from Sturbridge to Worcester in 2026
WORCESTER — The Pan-Mass Challenge, the annual bicycle event that takes riders across the state to raise money for cancer research, will have a new starting location in 2026.
The start line will move to Worcester from Sturbridge, its base since 1981.
The new origin will be at the College of the Holy Cross.
"This new partnership with Holy Cross offers our PMC community more space and resources to increase our impact in the fight against cancer,” event founder Billy Starr said in a news release. “We look forward to creating new traditions at Holy Cross and introducing Worcester and its citizens to PMC magic in 2026.”
The event typically has around 6,000 to 7,000 riders each year, riding in routes that range in distance from 25 to 192 miles. The longest route historically has been from Sturbridge to Provincetown.
Past riders include three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, former Gov. Charlie Baker and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, a senator when he participated.
The first event starting in Worcester is July 31, 2026.
The change would include a new route for the first 23 miles of the event.
As a summer event, the Holy Cross campus as a hub was attractive to Pan-Mass organizers, as well as the city's central location within the state.
"The Pan-Mass Challenge has found a fitting new home here at Holy Cross, given our college’s long commitment to community and service to others," Holy Cross President Vincent Rougeau said in a statement.
The PMC was created by Starr in 1980 to raise money for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and its associated charity, the Jimmy Fund.
Worcester has a long history related to cycling, most notably with Marshall "Major" Taylor, who moved to Worcester as a teenager and would win the 1899 ICA World Championship in the one-mile sprint event. He was one of the first major Black athletic stars in American history. There are tributes to him in Worcester including Major Taylor Boulevard in downtown Worcester and a memorial outside the Worcester Public Library.
Last Sturbridge start in 2025
Sturbridge will host the final start next summer, giving riders one final chance to pedal out of the town one final time.
"It is a disappointment, but not all that unexpected," Alexandra McNitt, executive director of the Chamber of Central Mass South, said. "The leadership at the PMC has made it clear that they were open to moving the starting location for the last couple of years, and Worcester has made a very concerted effort to add more hotel rooms, and have successfully landed some major events."
McNitt said that the loss of the event will be a blow to local hotels and restaurants, although given that the Pan-Mass Challenge has typically fallen on the same weekend of Old Sturbridge Village's Redcoats and Rebels event, it may actually work as a breather for the community, she said.
"Redcoats and Rebels is the largest military reenactment in New England, so between that and the PMC, there was quite a strain on the local hotel scene," McNitt said. "The thing about the PMC is, most riders are staying in the hotels, but their goal is to pack in a bunch of calories and then ride out of town, so it's good for the hotels but other than that they don't spend that much in our local businesses, as opposed to the Redcoats and Rebels, where people are staying and spending time right in town."