The parking lot at Tsali Recreation Area was full of bikes Friday evening — more than 100 of them, strapped to the backs of sedans and SUVs, tied into beds of pickup trucks, license plates running the gamut from Florida to Virginia to Mississippi. Gears were spun, wheelies popped, hoorahs yelled as mountain bikes shot down the trail or gathered in a shiny metal line to await the start of the group ride.

SEE ALSO: Fake it till you make it

“I’m kinda excited,” said Rob Burgess, prepping his bike in the parking lot. “Tsali is one of the epic trails.”

As national champion Karen Tripp likes to say, cyclo-cross is a sport that you win by seconds. And that’s just how the Sylva resident conquered nationals in Asheville this year. By seconds — 34 of them. 

“I think my mind and my focus was there,” Tripp said. “They all have to come together just right, because not every race is like that.”

Diane Cutler, Co-owner Bryson City Bicycles. Board Member – Nantahala Area Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association. www.brysoncitybicycles.com. 

It’s all hands on deck this weekend as Waynesville prepares to welcome more than 1,100 cyclists and their families to town for the start of the Cycle N.C. Mountains to Coast Ride. 

Waynesville was fortunate enough to be selected as the starting point for the weeklong, 500-mile bicycle ride across the state, and town and tourism development officials have been prepping for months to make sure the event goes off without a hitch.

SEE ALSO: Haywood wants a share of cycling tourists

Since the first wheels starting turning in 2010’s inaugural Blue Ridge Breakaway bike ride, cycling has been picking up speed in Haywood County. And as more cyclists have flocked to the annual cruise of Haywood’s scenic byways, the county’s reputation as a cycling destination for the remaining 364 days of the year has grown as well. There might not be a lot of hard data on that yet, but the anecdotes flow freely.

For veterinarian Brian Birthright, what would become a lifelong passion for biking began in the most fitting of ways — with a dog. 

Then living in New England, Birthright was the owner of an overactive puppy who just wouldn’t tire. That’s what led him to take up mountain biking.

Four years ago, Jennie Wyderko — then finishing up her undergrad at Virginia Tech — had barely even touched a mountain bike. 

Fast forward to 2015, and she’s one of two female officers for the Nantahala Area Southern Off Road Bicycle Association, co-organizer of a women-only skills clinic and weekly ride through the club and a year out from finishing a 2,000-mile mountain bike route along the Great Divide in the Rocky Mountains.

Big white stencils of helmeted bikers now adorn a growing number of streets throughout Waynesville.

The plans are set: Waynesville’s getting invaded this fall, and the army will be 1,000 strong. 

Semi trucks will haul luggage and portable showers, tents will dominate the lawn of the Waynesville Recreation Center and, most importantly, the soldiers, adventurous souls who have signed up to pedal nearly 500 miles across the state in Cycle North Carolina’s Mountains to Coast Tour, will show up with two-wheeled mounts in tow.

Brian Railsback learned a valuable lesson when he missed a September meeting of the Western Carolina University Honors College Student Board of Directors: skip a meeting, and you just might wind up volunteered to do a century bike ride through the mountains. As Railsback, Honors College dean and English professor, found out later, the meeting concluded with a decision that he should pedal 118 miles to the top of Mount Mitchell to raise scholarship money for the college. 

“What happened was I missed that meeting, and they voted unanimously to move forward with it,” Railsback said.