There’s already excitement in the air for the return of the community favorite Gears and Guitars Cycling/Music Event, coming your way September 9-11, 2022, with a few new twists this year!

The ninth edition of this amazing mix of sport and entertainment will feature three exciting days of professional and amateur bike racing, community bike rides, and an extra special live music event. Long-time sponsors Novant Health, Flow Automotive, and the Carolinas Pain Institute have been instrumental in supporting this event through the years, and in bringing the extravaganza back in full force again this year.

“This year we’re really taking it up a notch,” says the event’s Chief Operating Officer, Ray Boden. “We’re making all the music all weekend free, including the big concert on Saturday night at Bailey Park.” Dawes has been announced as the headliner for Friday night’s festivities off 4^th street, along with Better Than Ezra and other special guests on Saturday night at Bailey Park.

Gears and Guitars is known as one of the country’s premiere professional and amateur cycling events, bringing in racers from across the country, and some from around the world. It’s affectionately dubbed “the biggest party on two wheels” for a reason: The event has a reputation for its challenging criterium circuit around Bailey Park, a host of community cycling activities, and big-name live music for a one-of-a-kind weekend.

Gears and Guitars is a celebration of community-wide fitness, family fun, and the clear appeal cycling has taken on in the Winston-Salem area. With its overall vibrant ambiance and focus on a healthy lifestyle for all, the city of Winston-Salem has grown its cycling community into an enormously popular outlet, as a favorite solo, group, or family activity. Whether you’re biking on the greenway with your kids on a weekend afternoon, winding a road or two with cycling buddies, or exploring nearby trails on a mountain bike, cycling is a great way to establish some healthy habits and grab a good dose of fresh air and sunshine. If you work downtown, you’re likely used to seeing lots of cycling commuters to work as well!

Once you decide to master your bike, you’ll see it’s easy to find cycling clubs, expert bike shops, even veterans’ riding groups, since literally thousands of Winston-Salem residents are involved in the sport of cycling at some level.

Here’s what to expect that weekend:

• Friday night: Streets of Fire, presented by Flow Automotive, will feature exciting drag race-style street sprint bike racing heats down 4^th Street all evening, with free live music and headliner Dawes.
• Saturday, there’s also criterium racing all day long around Bailey Park. Amateurs and professionals will take to the challenging course throughout the day, and the route will now start and finish on an uphill segment along Vine Street, changing the race dynamic and enhancing spectator viewing. It also opens up all of Bailey Park for more of a festival atmosphere for the weekend with booths, food trucks, a beer garden, and exhibitions in the mini velodrome (a small wooden and steeply banked arena where cyclists compete in thrilling pursuit races).
• Saturday night – Bring your blankets and hang out the rest of the evening for a free concert at Bailey Park featuring headliner Better Than Ezra!
• Sunday: Fondos and Family Fun! The Fondos, presented by Flow Automotive, are community rides open to everyone, and will have four different distances this year, including greenway/gravel options. The afternoon will include a family bike parade and a kid’s bike rodeo along with food trucks and more free live local music.

There’s still time to get your legs in shape, gather your cycling buddies, and by all means check out the countless volunteer opportunities that will be necessary to deliver this fun, impactful weekend to Winston-Salem. Even if it’s been awhile – as the old saying goes – you really never forget how to ride that bike!

Visit WinstonSalemCycling.com now for registration information. Gears and Guitars will take place in Bailey Park, located on Patterson Avenue between Fourth and Fifth Streets, in the Innovation Quarter, and all bike rides will depart from Bailey Park.