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The first time was impressive. The second time was gigantic.

The third time? Off the charts.

In June 2009, the City of Madison hosted the inaugural Ride the Drive, with lead sponsorship from Trek and plenty of help from the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin. Closing off major roads for car-free fun, the open streets extravaganza drew 10,000 participants. A year later, in June 2010, the second event turned out nearly 25,000 bicyclists and pedestrians.

So what happens when you add Lance Armstrong to the mix? An eye-popping crowd of more than 50,000 riders.

“Every time we hold it, it doubles or triples,” says Amanda White, the Ride the Drive coordinator for the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin.

This past Sunday, the cycling celebrity addressed the gigantic crowd and led a loop on the six-mile course through the heart of Madison. Dressed in gym clothes, Armstrong mingled with the thousands of bicyclists. “I led a bike parade after the big ride with Lance and he stopped by and signed our Feet in the Street, where kids were stenciling their feet with sidewalk chalk,” White says.

But the Tour de France champion isn’t the only reason the Bike Fed’s open streets events have taken off. According to White: “The messaging for the event is very inclusive: ’Come out with your kids, with your friends. Whether you want to wear spandex or blue jeans, come out and enjoy the day.’”

“And we’re very focused on a more mainstream crowd,” she adds. “We have a lot of unique activities along the route. We have kite flying. We have a bike parade. We have the wheelmen group with huge old bikes, and an art bike group with all these beautifully decorated bikes. And there are different areas along the route, like the Family Drive area, which is a little festival in itself directed at families.”

A well-chosen course has also enticed participants. “The roads we have closed off — or, as the mayor says, have opened up — for bicyclists are six-lane streets with very heavy traffic volumes,” White says. “They’re streets most people would never think to bike on, so to be able to bike on those streets is such an amazing thing.”

Click here to check out some amazing pictures from the University of Wisconsin cycling team.

When folks in Madison, Wisconsin, buy a Trek bicycle this month they’ll wheel out of the local shop with more than a simple receipt. Even before they hit the street, they’ll be card-carrying members of the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin.

For free.

Sure, residents of the Badger State are a bit more inclined toward cycling than the rest of the nation, but Trek and a handful of enlightened retailers aim to spike the ranks of the state advocacy organization by picking up the tab for every buyer’s first-year bike fed membership. Kathryn Kingsbury, communications director, says the idea didn’t come from the federation; it originated with the folks at the Madison shop Machinery Row.

“We’ve been selling Bike Fed memberships for several years and weren’t really making the giant increases we had hoped for,” says Luke Bachelor-Clark, store manager at Machinery Row. “Right now we have a great opportunity in Wisconsin to improve cycling infrastructure. The Bike Federation is the group that will navigate the political scene and make things happen.  Their success rate will improve greatly if they can say they represent more people.  There are tens of thousands of people who are interested in better biking and just don’t know how to get involved and have their voices heard.”

So, this month, anybody who buys a Trek becomes a member of the bike fed, courtesy of the Wisconsin-based bicycle company. At Machinery Row, anybody who buys any bike before the end of the year gets a free membership, courtesy of the retailer, too. And the initiative is spreading: Earlier this week, Willy Bikes, another Madison retailer, committed to purchase a complimentary membership for any bike buyer through the end of July.

The heat is on the Bike Fed to inspire the complimentary members to renew once their free ride expires, but the partnership between retailers and advocates has the Bike Fed pumped. “We’re pretty cranked (excuse the pun),” Kingsbury writes on the group’s blog.

Read more about the initiative here.