Winston Salem is a mid-sized city located in the Piedmont of North Carolina. With a population of 545,000 in the greater metro area, WS offers a tremendous opportunity to discover the local geography and to be a part of this vibrant community.
Winston-Salem supports a thriving local cycling community, with more than 2,000 official club members and thousands more who ride on a recreational basis. This is a city that truly welcomes the sport.
But that’s not all. Winston-Salem’s two research-level universities – Wake Forest University and Winston-Salem State University – feature extensive sports medicine and exercise physiology programs, providing a critical educational and health sciences component. Both are heavily involved in supporting the efforts of the organization and the organization is also fully committed to supporting these two institutions.
The city itself has a population of 545,000, making traffic easy and routes accessible. Riders can access lightly traveled two-lane rolling roads just outside the city. Significant climbs up Pilot Mountain (2.93 km at 9.2%), Hanging Rock, and Sauratown Mountain lie within 20 miles. And the famous climbs of the Blue Ridge Parkway are just fifty miles to the North.
World-class mountain biking trails are close by at Hobby Park and Salem Lake, and the famous Kerr Scott trails are just 40 minutes away in Wilkesboro, N.C.
In addition, Winston-Salem already hosts major cycling events that draw racers from around the world. The Winston-Salem Cycling Classic, held in the Spring as a part of the USA Crit series, is one of only two UCI-licensed category 1.1 races in the US each year and features both a road race and a criterium. The city hosted the USA Cycling Professional Road Race and Criterium National Championships in 2016 as well as the USA Cycling Masters and Para-cycling National Championships – the first city to ever host this many National Championship events simultaneously.
