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Best places to live for recreational cyclists?

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Jun 30, 2014
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Meran/Merano is a great place, the weather is rather mild (at least by our standarts), so you can ride all year round, with Meran 2000 you have a really hard training climb that pretty much starts in the city, there are many other great climbs in the surrounding area (Leadner Höhe, Salten/il Salto Gampen Joch/Passo delle Palade) and if you go for a longer ride you can just choose between Stelvio, Rombo, Passo di Monte Giovo or the underrated Maso Corto, for a cyclist that's a great place to live.
 
Nov 18, 2016
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The Cote d'Azur is amazing. I go there every year in the summer, and sometimes in the winter/spring. Great riding, hilly. always nice weather and good for the whole family, as they will love it there what gives us more possibilities for riding our bike.
Only in the summer try to avoid the coastal road as there it will be crowdy after 11:00 hours.

For Great cycling in the high mountains I would surely suggest the Dolomites. I really love it over there. The Alta Badia region is splendid.

And also great is the environment of Calpe Spain. Specially in winter and spring. lots of professional teams go there for training stages.
 
Jan 15, 2017
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I live in Asturias, north of Spain. Typical Vuelta climbs here (Lagos de Covadonga, Angliru, etc.), and plenty of hard and long climbs, 2nd cat climbs, 3rd cat, etc. It's a place with the sea close to the mountains, some climbs start at sea level in the coast. It's a warm place, not too cold and not too hot. There aren't not so many flat roads, some "rolling" sections in which we train when avoiding climbs.

The only problem is weather in winter months, as it rains sometimes for a month everyday. From January to April we have lots of rainy days, although temperature is not bad. The rest of the year, it's a cycling paradise. In fact, Asturian riders as Samuel Sánchez, Dani Navarro or Iván Cortina live here.
 
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GambadiLegno said:
Hey, I worked with a guy who's living there in Wollongong! Nice place as I could see in pictures!
grand-pacific-drive-sydney.jpg
 
Mar 12, 2017
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Hi: I live in Northwest Arkansas, (Ozark Mountains) We have great weather with tastes of all the seasons, Humid warm summers, light winters and great springs and falls for being outdoors. We have great hilly terrain with good vistas. Our metropolitan area of NWA, Fayetteville north through Bentonville has been building many miles of bike trails with tunnels and bridges which is good for commuters of bikers and joggers alike.
There is a large contingency of mountain bikes with many miles of back woods trails and camping. Fayetteville has hosted the Joe Martin Stage races that attract many Pros and quality amateurs.
If you have a chance to visit this area you will be impressed. Unemployment is low and quality of life quite good. And home prices still reasonable. This area has been rated many times in national surveys as one of top 10 places to live in the country.
 
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fatandfast said:
San Diego, South of France, Spain, NYC,Holland. If you want to race recreational style do not go to any of these places. They all have a super strong contingent of folks that work real jobs but ride like pros. Colorado is great for everything on a bike including beer before during and after rides
NYC?

I realize it's a pretty awesome city with a heap of things going on, and it's great that it's so much safer than it was 20 years ago and all, and it's cool that there's more bike lanes than ever, but still...NYC? You can't ride 4 months or more of the year because it's too damned cold, you're almost always in traffic, traffic of cars, traffic of people. It's basically flat. There's not a lot of scenery, no grandeur of riding in the beauty of mother nature. Sure Central Park is a great park, but it's not quite the same as upstate NY, let alone being in real mountains.
 
I can't answer what the best place for cycling would be I can only answer the best place I ever lived in for cycling and that was Santa Barbara California. Santa Barbara has a huge variety of riding conditions from along the beach to the mountains, they have great bike paths, great weather for year round cycling, and the majority of motorists are aware of cyclists presence on roads...as long as you stay off the busy tourist streets found mostly in downtown area, but streets like State and Cabrillo, narrow streets that are also busy like W Mission St, E Mission street seems to get less busy. In regards to Cabrillo there is a bike path that runs parallel to it but it's usually jammed with tourists walking, runners, and cyclists that don't know better! And of course the ever present scantily clad women and drunk bums.
 
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Alpe d'Huez said:
fatandfast said:
San Diego, South of France, Spain, NYC,Holland. If you want to race recreational style do not go to any of these places. They all have a super strong contingent of folks that work real jobs but ride like pros. Colorado is great for everything on a bike including beer before during and after rides
NYC?

I realize it's a pretty awesome city with a heap of things going on, and it's great that it's so much safer than it was 20 years ago and all, and it's cool that there's more bike lanes than ever, but still...NYC? You can't ride 4 months or more of the year because it's too damned cold, you're almost always in traffic, traffic of cars, traffic of people. It's basically flat. There's not a lot of scenery, no grandeur of riding in the beauty of mother nature. Sure Central Park is a great park, but it's not quite the same as upstate NY, let alone being in real mountains.

I'd flip your argument on its head a bit for his claim to make sense. NYC is an increasingly difficult city to get around in (Moses envisaged no population or commercial growth--stuck in time like many futurist visions of the moment--and the MTA has been sevicing debt for years rather than upgrading infrastructure--for people who both cycle seriously and commute by bike it opens up a whole other level by which to engage the city.
 
May 11, 2009
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fatandfast said:
............................ Colorado is great for everything on a bike including beer before during and after rides

I second that - Colorado is great for road, TTs, track, MTB, touring, and beer. This year I was able to ride the front range roads all year with only a few weeks bad weather.
 
Apr 11, 2017
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@NL_LeMondFans said:
vedrafjord said:
So where's good? The Côte d'Azur must be up there.

That's what I was thinking. Maybe other hilly places in France like Pays Basque (Biarritz) or Limousin (Limoges) could fit the description.

You're right, Basque Country is perfect for cycling, green, hilly, fantastic coast-line, climbs almost everywhere (from easy to very tough), food is excellent, nightlife too... sometime it's just a bit rainy but never too cold.
If you ride a sunday morning there, you'll see bunch of pretty good local riders almost every 5min.
 
Haven't traveled the world to know but Colorado should always be on any list of the best places to live for recreational cycling.

Weather allows nearly year round riding.
:) Climbs; always an important part of great cycling.
:surprised: Asphalt to 14,000 feet above sea level on both MT. Evans and Pikes Peak.
Flat lands and lots of it at the base of the mountains, offer variation.
:D Mountains offer escape from hot weather during summer.
;) Cycling culture.
:cool: More craft beer breweries per capita than most places.
Road or mountain biking.
 

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