Ride your Damn Bike

Festival brings grassroots cycling events back to Fayetteville.

By Bryce Ward

In 2021, the world governing body for cycling, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), awarded Fayetteville with the rare distinction of being a “Bike City” — a label that, to this day, has been given to no other city in the United States. According to the UCI, the Bike City label supports and rewards cities that host major UCI cycling events and which demonstrate a commitment to developing cycling at all levels, from elite competition to the use of bikes for leisure and as a means of transportation.

On paper, Fayetteville has earned the rare title of being a Bike City, placing the Ozark-nestled college town alongside the likes of Copenhagen, Paris, Montreal and Tokyo. But for the cyclists living and riding in Fayetteville on a daily basis, this level of distinction may feel unwarranted.

While Centennial Park has hosted numerous high-level events, it hosts surprisingly few grassroot events for locals to participate in.

The Joe Martin Stage Race was a staple of Fayetteville for many years and a unique opportunity for local cyclists to compete on familiar roads, but following its unfortunate conclusion in 2023 because of a lack of funding, there has been a void in Fayetteville’s road racing scene that remains unfilled.

And though Fayetteville has a well-connected and continually growing network of paved and unpaved trails, cyclists don’t have to venture far from them to be reminded that a significant portion of locals do not consider Fayetteville “a bike city.”

Ultimately, the city itself can only do so much to live up to this distinction; it’s up to the cycling community within Fayetteville to leverage the city’s support and cultivate the type of bike-oriented culture one would come to expect here. However, achieving such a culture at a meaningful scale is impossible without a strong foundation of grass-roots events that bring cyclists together, a foundation that in recent years Fayetteville has lacked.

The freshly felt absence of cycling events in Fayetteville was one of the driving factors behind the inaugural edition of the Ride Your Damn Bike Festival, an off-road-focused series of events that took place in September. In the words of Alex Laitamaki, one of the organizers behind the festival, “There’s so much amazing off-road riding right outside our doorstep, yet there weren’t any dedicated events hosted out of Fayetteville.”

The RYDB Fest, orchestrated by local group Ozark Gravel Cyclists (OGC), described itself as a multiday celebration of cycling, community and craft based in downtown Fayetteville. It consisted of group rides, an expo, workshops and three distinct yet complementary gravel events. Multiple groups and individuals were responsible for the festival’s various components, each with their own sets of motivations and goals, but all were united in name by the same bold ethos.

The first component of the RYDB Fest was a five-year celebration of OGC’s aptly named weeknight gravel ride, “Thirsty Thursday,” a fixture in the Fayetteville group ride scene. Two separate rides departed from the docks of Puritan Coffee & Beer on Dickson Street to commemorate the ride and set the stage for the festivities to come. The first ride emphasized the social side of cycling and took the group on a tour of downtown Fayetteville. The second ride embraced the faster side of cycling, with heart-rate raising miles through west Fayetteville and a sampling of the dirt criterium to be hosted at the University of Arkansas’s Agriculture Park two days later.

The second component of the RYDB Fest was an expo and series of workshops hosted at the Upper Ramble, a newly developed outdoor gathering space (and once-upon-a-time parking lot) in the heart of a bustling downtown Fayetteville. A variety of local businesses — from bike shops and apparel and gear companies to Fayetteville frame-builder Slow Southern Steel — set up shop at the unique outdoor venue, attracting a steady stream of curious pedestrians over the course of a pleasant, autumn-invoking afternoon.

Following the conclusion of the expo and workshops, the third and final component of the RYDB Fest hid behind the horizon. The next day, a series of three gravel-based events were poised to take off: at 8 a.m., the Fayetteville Ultra Circuit (F.U.C.) a grueling and fully self-supported bikepacking race with 100-, 200- and 400-mile categories; at 9 a.m., the Community Overnighter, a beginner-friendly, community-focused bikepacking ride with 73- and 83-mile route options; and at 2 p.m., the AgriCrit, a rowdy 1.6-mile criterium around the enclosed dirt roads of Fayetteville’s Agri Park, with four fields to choose from. After months of preparation for these events, everything was set in place, but a legion of dark thunderous clouds with eyes fixed on Fayetteville threatened to jeopardize it all.

On the morning of Sept. 20, ominous skies and a grim weather radar presented event organizers with a tough decision: stick with the initial timeline in spite of the storm, or push back the departure in hopes that the dark clouds would soon subside.

Race founder and director Alex Kowalski, in the spirit of the F,U,C,’s formidable layout, chose to stay the course, and at 8 a.m., 44 hard-nosed souls, with bikes loaded down and rain jackets fully zipped, departed from the Upper Ramble and ventured into a thunderous unknown.

Community Overnighter organizers Noelle Battle and Patrick Farnsworth, hoping to provide participants with a more enjoyable experience, chose to delay their departure and let the morning storms pass. Eventually, the sun emerged from the clouds, and at 11 a.m. the group headed southbound for Devil’s Den State Park along a route conceptualized one year prior as part of the Fayetteville Bikepacking Route Network.

Meanwhile, Bike Club NWA, a predominately and ironically road-focused cycling club and race team based in Fayetteville, began setup preparation for the AgriCrit, the first race the group had ever hosted, with desperate hopes that the afternoon’s weather forecast was not as damning as it appeared to be.

“Adventure starts when things go wrong.” 

Back at the Community Overnighter, after only 6 miles of riding, the group found itself taking shelter inside a McDonald’s while they waited out another sudden bout of heavy rain. Despite the unfortunate weather, spirits remained high, and after a couple of hours, the rain subsided to a drizzle and the group set off once again with many miles still ahead of them.

The first category of the AgriCrit, dedicated to mountain bikes exclusively, was scheduled to kick off at 3 p.m., but the booming sounds of thunder and torrential rain early in the afternoon made it apparent that a schedule change would be in order. Bike Club made a last-minute decision to push back the mountain bike category and combine it with the beginner category scheduled for 3:45 p.m., hoping this would give the storm enough time to pass.

Around the time the first race was underway at the Agri Park, the persistent September storm finally wandered away, leaving behind a mire of sludgy, washed-out roads and ushering in comically blissful and sunny weather for the remainder of the day.

Around 4:20 p.m., the first finisher of the F.U.C. 100, John Matthews, returned to the harbors of the Upper Ramble after 8 hours and 19 minutes of sock-soaked riding. The first finisher of the F.U.C. 200, Michelle Roth, returned around 6:30 a.m. Sunday morning, clocking in at 22 hours and 26 minutes of ride time. And after four days of valiant effort, the last remaining participant of the F.U.C. 400, Tony Gary, withdrew from the race after a series of misfortunate events that culminated in his body’s inability to put down any more food.

Contrary to the trend of most ultra bikepacking races, every rider in the F.U.C. was greeted upon their return. “I know how important it is for people to have that support after putting in such a massive effort,” Kowalski said, “We made sure to see every rider finish their ride, and I’m really proud of that. I think the shared struggle out there created a strong sense of camaraderie between the racers.”

Back at Devil’s Den, just as the sun slipped behind the horizon, the final few Community Overnighter riders reached camp Saturday night to the applause of the group.

“I want to acknowledge and thank every single person who was on that ride,” Farnsworth said, “Despite the unexpected challenge the day presented, the group remained in high spirits, bolstered by the amazing weather we had for the rest of the trip. As I always say, adventure starts when things go wrong.”

Battle, who served as a sweeper and source of support on the Community Overnighter, reflected on some inspiring stories from participants.

“One woman, whose longest prior ride was only 20 miles, completed 43 miles on day one like a champ,” Battle said. “Another rider pulled his son in a Burley trailer the whole ride, never stopping to walk up all of the steep hills. In places like the Ozarks, where hills are a given, I feel that most rides can be made beginner friendly by allowing enough time to finish at any pace.”

Meanwhile at the Agri Park, racers hosed down their mud-caked bikes and bodies, congregated around a podium backlit by the setting sun, and smiled at the absurdity of the day’s events. Despite all the preceding uncertainties, Bike Club’s first race was a success. In total, 29 riders lined up for the first bike event ever held at the park, with numerous friends and family members in attendance. Afterwards the group migrated to nearby brewery Fossil Cove to commemorate the memorable evening.

In retrospect, tempestuous weather could not have been a more fitting backdrop for the inaugural edition of the RYDB Fest, as it gave participants an opportunity to live out the founding ethos of the festival and challenged them to ride their damn bikes in spite of many logical reasons not to. Those who pushed aside their reservations and persevered through mud and rain learned firsthand the value of the festival’s straightforward principle. Cycling can provide deeply gratifying and rewarding experiences, fond memories and stories worthy of campfire conversations, meaning and moments of discovery both in wilderness and within, but only if we choose to ride.

The events and experiences that the RYDB Fest provided this September are exactly the kind that Fayetteville needs, not merely to justify its distinction as the nation’s only Bike City, but to cultivate a culture authentic to its roots as a well-positioned destination and departure point for bike-fueled adventures.

Although the RYDB Fest catered to the gravel and mountain bike sides of cycling, it cast an intentionally wide net to reach as many cyclists as it could, and it created a route — metaphorically speaking — for other aspiring event organizers to emulate. It was the result of efforts from everyday working people and cycling enthusiasts with a vision in mind, a willingness to see it through, and the support of its city and community. Its roots were planted firmly into the grass, and its seeds were sown into ordinary conversations and daydreams. Every city deserves more cycling events, and you, dear magazine reader, could plant the next one.