The Pro’s Closet, a massive bike refurbishment factory and retail outlet in Louisville, gets customers from all over North America through its online business model. This weekend, however, the company turned its gaze to the local bike riding community, opening its doors to them in a celebration of cycling culture.

The bike shop, at 1900 Taylor Ave., hosted the first day of its inaugural cycling festival Saturday. Dubbed The Great Spring Breakaway, the free event is both an opportunity to gather local bike enthusiasts and to show off the inner workings of the company.

“We’re really making a concerted effort to let the community know we’re here to help them,” said TPC General Manager Paul Calandrella.

Founded in 2006, TPC focuses on reselling preowned bikes. “This is better for the planet, in many ways,” Calandrella said. “If we can give a bike multiple lives, and reduce the carbon footprint to do business more sustainably, I’m a fan of that.”

Calandrella said it’s been a “heroic effort” to bring the festival to life, with the team working since January, but said he’d like to see it become an annual or even biannual event. The festival continues Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Festival guests could take a factory tour and get a behind-the-scenes look at how TPC tunes up, catalogs and stores the bikes that get chosen out of roughly 2,000 submissions received each week. They could also visit the vintage bike museum, which features over 200 historic bikes perched on pedestals and hanging from the ceiling.

At the retail store, a recent addition to the factory, hundreds of bikes and thousands of accessories were up for purchase, many at discounted prices. Jay Bargayo, director of growth marketing for TPC, said it’s exciting to see fellow “bike nerds” check out the location and work with the staff to help them find the perfect bike.

“What we want to do is just get people hyped about the season,” he said.

Outside in the parking lot, visitors could test ride bikes before purchasing them and explore over 25 booths manned by TPC’s business partners.

Brothers Ian and Sean Farrar, from Longmont, also wowed the crowd by hopping between platforms and obstacles on their mountain bikes.

“We’re doing our part to try to expose different kinds of bikes to people, and what you can do on them,” Ian Farrar said.

Several families came to the festival Saturday, with some of the younger visitors taking part in the kids’ criterium races held throughout the day.

Also onsite was Wish for Wheels, a Denver nonprofit that aims to make cycling accessible for kids and works closely with TPC on youth events.

Wish for Wheels founder Brad Appel said it’s awesome to see how many vendors and guests the festival was able to attract in its flagship year, with hundreds of people showing up Saturday.

“Every year, it’s just going to get better,” he said.