NEWRY — After an unexpected downpour early Friday morning, three paraplegic bicyclists pedaled into history with their hands on the first leg of the three-day American Lung Association’s annual Trek Across Maine.

Kenny Young of Newry and Springfield, Vt., Chris Collin of Hollis and Larry Nadeau of Springfield, Vt., rode out of the Maine Adaptive Sports & Recreation parking lot and onto Skiway Road while laying on their backs and pedaling handcycles.

It was the first time in the trek’s 30-year history that three paraplegics rode handcycles in the event, Kathleen O’Neill, communications manager for the American Lung Association of the Northeast, said.

Maine Adaptive adapts equipment to fit the recreational needs of the disabled. It was providing support for the trio and amputees Patrick Brown of Pittsfield and Corey Hamilton of St. Albans.

Three other Maine Adaptive Teammates riding with the five are Kenny’s wife, Kelli Young, Kelsey Moody of Gilead and Richard Sirois. All are with the athenahealth team and making history also. This is the first Trek that Maine Adaptive has entered a team.

All five pedaled regular bikes.

“It’s our maiden voyage,” Deb Maxfield, Maine Adaptive’s marketing director and support van rider, said. “It will be quite an adventure.”

“I’m going to try to keep up with them,” said Moody, who was riding Maxfield’s bike. Moody had only ridden a bike for 15 miles on Wednesday with the Youngs for training.

“These guys are really talented,” she said. “They’ve got a lot more experience than I have. I think we’re going to rock ‘n’ roll. We all look out for each other.”

They joined more than 2,000 bicyclists who will attempt to pedal a 180-mile route from the parking lot of Sunday River Ski Resort in Newry to the Atlantic Ocean in Belfast.

Just the fact that Maine Adaptive is debuting a team to participate in the Trek “is amazing,”  Moody, Maine Adaptive’s program coordinator, said.

It’s a pilot program that Brown organized after participating in last year’s Trek with team athenahealth, with whom he’s employed.

“Pat finished it, and he wasn’t the last person to finish,” Moody said.

He loved it so much he organized a team for this year’s event “and got us all excited,” she added. “Our team is incredibly strong. A lot of our athletes are year-round athletes.”

Brown said he lost his leg from a skydiving accident in 2009 in Pittsfield. “My parachute collapsed and I fell 75 feet and had that amputated in August of 2009.”

He joined Maine Adaptive in 2013 to ski, joined the ski-racing team, became a volunteer and now teaches skiing.

“Once I did (the trek last year), I realized how much fun it was and I wanted to do it again and I conned all these guys into it,” Brown said of the team.

Brown said he trained more this year than last year.

“Last year, I had never ridden more than 33 miles in a day,” Brown said. “The first day (of the 2014 Trek), I doubled the amount of miles I’d ever ridden in a day, so it was difficult. This year, I’ve got a couple hundred miles under my belt and I skied 45 days this year, so I was not being a couch potato over the winter.”

Hamilton suffered a leg injury in a car accident in 2001 and had his left leg amputated last year after roughly 14 surgeries failed to correct the problem. “We finally had it amputated and it’s the best thing I could have done. Now I’ve been skiing with Maine Adaptive and I’m able to do the Trek for the first time.”

Paralyzed from the waist down, Kenny Young broke his back in 2006 while racing snowmobiles and Nadeau, 41, broke his back in two places in a 1997 motorcycle accident. Both joined Maine Adaptive last year. Both ski and handcycle in Vermont. Nadeau handcycles competitively, winning last month’s Vermont City Marathon & Relay in Burlington.

Collin was paralyzed from the chest down in a 2008 motorcycle accident. He joined Maine Adaptive in 2009. The most he’d ever pedaled a handcycle was 52 miles in a day. The Trek’s first leg is nearly 70 miles.

Collin, 29, skis, handcycles and plays wheelchair rugby on a basketball court.

He said “just getting your butt out of bed in the morning” is all it takes to enjoy sports like handcycling. “Get out there and try it. Once you try, there’s a bunch of sports that are adaptive to what you can do after you find out which ones you like.”

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