Great Lakes - Rides near Oxford, WI or the WI Dells

I'm leaving for a relaxing vacation to Oxford, WI a week from today to visit my girlfriend's parent's lake house. I was wondering if anyone knows of any good routes in the area. I have never been to WI before and am excited to get some miles in. I have 3 full days of nothing to do in the mornings and would love to get some 40-60mile rides (maybe longer) in. Again, I am not familiar with the area, but something near Oxford (it is about 60miles directly north of Madison) or the WI Dells would be awesome. Any suggestions are welcome.
~Nick

Hmm, I am in Madison so not as familiar, but if you willing to drop south about 20 miles from the Dells in Sauk and NW Dane County there are many great rides. Hope you like hills. If you want to ride on bike trails, however, there is the 400 Trail and Elroy Sparta in the general vicinity.

Edit: Richland Center is relatively nearby; this might help you get started or at least better contacts:

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=547025

Hey thanks for the info! I am looking for longer rides either on the flats where I can do some TT intervals and get a lot of good tempo riding in or on some rolling hills or climbs where I don't have to worry about always stopping for traffic every 1/8 miles like I do here in Stl. I plan to come into the week somewhat rested and hit it hard for the 4 days I am there. I prefer to stay off bike trails unless they are either not heavily trafficked or are wide enough where I am not being a danger to recreational and family/group riders. I'll check your suggestions though.

On an unrelated note, while I do like it here in Stl, I am looking at moving to either Madison or Portland (different I know) once my lease here is up. How do you like the riding out there? Is it possible to live in a somewhat urban area and be within riding distance of good country roads or those that aren't trafficked with stop lights and intersections? Also, are there any good climbs round those parts or am I just dreaming?
~Nick

Riding in WI is great. As for hills, we have them. We don't really have long climbs (except in Western WI where you can find maybe a four mile climb), but what we do have are wicked 8-10% 1 mile climbs and steep hills up to 15-17% that last 100 yards or so, and in the driftless area (western Dane County, where Madison is located and beyond) you are either going up or going down. Do some thread searches on the Dairyland Dare ride reports or Horribly Hilly Hundreds and you'll get the idea. The Chicagoland folks like to make fun of us up here in cheeselandia, and yet they can't help themselves vacationing here and taking their bikes up here to escape boring flatlandia!

As for Madison, the metro area is about 500,000 (the city itself is 220k) but it feels like a really big small town. It does not particularly have an urban feel (unless of course you grew up in podunkville). Even if you live "downtown" (don't think "real" city downtown, think state capitol downtown), you can get out in the country in 10 minutes using escape routes and the extensive trail system. And Chicago is 3 hrs and Milwaukee 1.5 if you really to visit a city. And it is not as crazy hippy dippy liberal as the media makes it out to be. There is a very vocal hippy dippy group but most people are mainstream moderates.

The weather is cold. Very cold. You have to be hearty and embrace winter. It is routinely below 10 degrees and sometimes it gets as cold as -15 (that's air temp, not wind chill). The average high in January is 23. It snows about 50 inches a year, which isn't a lot by my standards but because it is cold it sticks around. Cross country skiing is popular, and there is a hearty population that rides year round in those temperatures. We have lakes that freeze over. I'll personally ride down to about 15 degrees before I cry uncle.

Wow...very cool! Thanks for the extensive review. Although winter is my least favorite season, I find myself looking at northern states/cities and liking the atmosphere there more. I just moved from an area of NE Missouri where the winters were very Chicago-like (i.e. Heavy constant winds with ~15* temperatures being the norm), and while it isn't ideal I could tolerate it if I dressed properly.

I do love living in urban areas, but for my riding sanity it just isn't good. I miss being able to do 3-4 hours without ever having to get out of the saddle to stop at an intersection past the first 15minutes of a ride. Here in St. Louis, I routinely have close to an hour ride to get to anywhere that is truly country riding.

We don't have a lot of climbs here but lots of steep rollers that will wear you out. 1-4 mile climbs to me are long and I like doing them. I did do some time in CO so I know what a real climb is like but I still consider smaller distances a climb. While I am not in hill climbing shape right now, my weight is back down to 145 and I am getting stronger so I am eager to swallow the challenge of some of the WI hills. The google maps terrain map didn't look too hilly in Marquette County but West of Madison looked very similar to Northern Arkansas...i.e. mini mountain ranges!

Thanks for the help. I may be contacting you about Madison more...your description of it sounds like my kind of place all around!
~Nick

As much as I like Wisconsin, I can't imagine anyone moving here for the biking. Yes the roads are pretty well maintained, the riding is great as far as traffic, variety of terrain, etc., but the winter is sooo long.

Well I wouldn't move anywhere for the riding. I am however looking at a few cities in the country (Madison and Portland being the top 2 as of now) and the riding community and local roads are some of the major factors playing into my decision. More than anything I hear nothing but good things about the state from residents who live there. The same goes for Oregon; obviously the biggest reason why I have been heavily considering those states.
~Nick

I will actually be down in Baraboo (fairly close to Oxford) on vaction starting on Wednesday night the 29th, but my wife has a pretty full agenda for us. I'll get out riding some, but I couldn't plan anything concrete. Definitely want to check out Devil's Lake State Park. On a side note, in case anyone didn't know, road bikes do not have to pay to get into WI State Parks. They have a trail pass for mountain bikes, but you can cruise around all you want on the roads for free.

I love the "terrain" feature on Google maps...makes it very easy to find the hills in any area.