RENO, Nev. — From the Tour de France to the Tour of California, bicycle races are well-known for the festive party atmosphere that springs up around the competition.

But it began the other way around for the Tour de Nez, French for "Tour of the Nose," a three-day celebration that has become one of the most popular cycling events in the west.

The party came first — as a way to thank customers at an eclectic coffee house called the Deux Gros Nez in an old Reno neighborhood.

"Seven years into it, we added entertainment and said, 'Let's throw a bicycle race,' " said owner Tim Healion.

The Tour de Nez, scheduled for June 22-24 and now in its 14th year, is both a street festival and a serious bike race that's spectator-friendly.

In addition to the pro cycling series in Reno and at Lake Tahoe, antique bicycles will be displayed at the Nevada Museum of Art and bands will perform at beach parties. There will be bike-decorating contests and messenger races, clinics and expos, recreational rides and races for seniors and kids. Promotions promise "mint juleps at every corner."

"This is an event for anyone who loves anything to do with bikes," Healion said.

But with a $385,000 budget and $35,000 in prize money, the Tour de Nez also attracts some of the top racers in the nation.

"It's a great, great event," said Dave Towle, a veteran cycling announcer from Boulder, Colo. "It's really unusual to start as a grass-roots event and become a major event at the highest tier on the national racing calendar. Normally events are based on someone finding a sponsor that is interested in having a race and then building on it.

"In this case, Tim just really wanted to have a party," he added. "And the race turned out to be one of the coolest parts of the party."

USA Cycling, the official cycling organization recognized by the U.S. Olympic Committee, sanctions more than 2,000 events a year, but only about 40 qualify for its National Racing Calendar.

"To be included on that calendar is a fairly prestigious thing in and of itself," USA Cycling spokesman Andy Lee said from the headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo. "They represent the best of the best road events."

Healion's interest in bikes goes way back. He races bikes, rebuilds bikes and collects them. When he moved to Reno in 1982, he found a cyclist's dream — vast open spaces on the edge of town nestled up against the snow-covered peaks of the Sierra Nevada, less than an hour from Lake Tahoe.

"The Reno-Tahoe area, both geographically and visually, has some great places to ride," Healion said.

But business at the Deux Gros Nez wasn't booming then.

"The casinos were thriving, and they ran the community," Healion recalls. "They used the old-school formula of trying to get somebody in front of a slot machine and keep them there all night, with cabaret shows and cheap food."

Healion and his business partner — the coffeehouse owners with the "two big noses" — stuck it out and eventually turned a profit. As a way of thanking their customers, they started hosting an annual anniversary party in a small parking lot, later adding the bike race.

This year's field for the Tour de Nez includes five of the nation's top 10 racers in USA Cycling's standings — No. 2 Nathan O'Neill, No. 3 Fraser Gordon, No. 6 Chris Baldwin, No. 9 Scott Moninger and No. 10 Juan Jose Haedo.

Partly because the event is limited to U.S. cyclists, Healion believes the Tour de Nez will be "the most significant national race for domestic professionals in the U.S. this year."

"Our on-the-ground spectator base will be as strong as any other on the West Coast," he said.

The pro series begins June 22 with a five-mile time trial with a 300-foot climb at Verdi just west of Reno, followed by the Truckee Criterium, a one-hour timed race on a 0.6-mile track in the historic logging and railroad town of Truckee, Calif., near Lake Tahoe.

The next day, the 108-mile Tahoe Road Race starts in Truckee near where the infamous Donner Party met its fate near the top of the Sierra Nevada in the winter of 1846-47. Racers do three laps on a 36-mile loop that takes them to Tahoe City, Calif., and along the shores of Lake Tahoe to near the Nevada line before returning over the mountains to Truckee.

"That day would have to rank in the top five most beautiful racing days in America," Towle said.

The pro competition concludes June 24 with the Mighty Tour de Nez Criterium — an 0.8-mile loop in downtown Reno with 10 turns and steep climbs. For the first time, the Tour de Nez also will host the National Hand Cycling Criterium Championships on June 24.

Highlights of the Tour de Nez are scheduled to air later this year on a one-hour show on the Outdoor Life Network.

The demographics of cyclists also make them an attractive market.

"These people are not poor. Some have $5,000 bikes," said Abbi Holtom, a public relations official for the event. "They are college-educated. They like to travel. A huge percentage of them choose their vacations around their lifestyle."