Open Door Cycle Fest featuring The Fast and The Fiorini Road Ride & The Hills and The Hollers Gravel Grinder

Ride To Open Doors!

USA Cycling Permit 8653

Open Door Cycle Fest is a one-day, two-wheel celebration that offers something for everyone - experienced metric century riders, mixed surface adventure riders, mid-distance recreational riders, novices, and families. Come visit Central Appalachia and experience Southwest Virginia's sights, sounds, local flavors, and artisans. Ride routes include scenic byways, backroads, and National Forest Service gravel and dirt roads in parts of Wythe, Bland, and Tazewell counties. Celebrate after the ride with food, drink, and music at Wytheville's Open Door Café and it's annual Chautauqua Festival. With multiple attractions, stores, and aid stations along the way, all happening during Wytheville's annual Chautauqua festival, friends and families have plenty of reasons to join cyclists for a day or weekend long trip. 

The FAST and The FIORINI (formerly know as the Big Pencil to Big Walker Charity Ride and launched in 2004) is our traditional charity road ride to end homelessness and ensure housing affordability. Celebrating 20 years of cycling in 2024, we've added a new, companion gravel grinder event called The Hills and The Hollers. Together, the two group ride events make up the Open Door Cycle Fest. We also have a new leisure, social ride designed for families, bodies of faith, school groups, and business teams to fight homelessness in Southwest Virginia.

It’s a #housingfirst cycling festival to end homelessness!

With your support Open Door Community activates bicyclists of all interest and experience levels to fight homelessness. Join our #housingfirst cycling movement. Help your favorite rider reach their fundraising goal by pledging to give per-mile or donate a fixed amount. Gifts support Open Door's general charitable purpose and activities. 

Your gifts help end homelessness in our community using the “Housing First” approach. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, “Housing First is a homeless assistance approach that prioritizes providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness, thus ending their homelessness and serving as a platform from which they can pursue personal goals and improve their quality of life.”

Raise funds from friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers for #housingfirst! Every local $1 raised helps leverage $4 more dollars in federal and state housing assistance funds. 

To contribute, click on the DONATE button above and make your contribution towards a Fast and Fiorini rider! If you want to become a Ride A-thon ambassador yourself, click on “BECOME A FUNDRAISER” under the “DONATE” button.

• $10 – Leverages 1 night of safe, emergency shelter 
• $30 – Leverages 3 nights of safe, emergency shelter (each race registration funds social impact at this level)
• $50 – Equals 1 month of a utility bill for a newly housed client
• $135 – Funds 1 month of supportive housing services to a rehoused client
• $500 – Equals a security deposit or 1 month’s rent to move a household out of temporary housing
• $540 – Funds 3 months of supportive housing service to a rehoused client
• $1,000 – Leverages 111 nights of safe, emergency shelter

*Giving levels are provided for illustrative purposes only. They are intended to help guide donor decisions, providing examples of giving impact. Giving at a particular level does not imply a donor restriction. All proceeds support HOPE, Inc.’s general charitable activities unless otherwise restricted by the donor.