eskimo85

eventservices you make me proud with your constant promotion of mqt and sbf!!

Mtn Mike

The Pacific NW is generally pretty good for racing; either Portland or Seattle metro areas put you in the center of some good racing scenes. Pretty much anything you'd want weekly (TT, RR, crit, Track) within an hour of either city. I really can't comment on any other location.

bvfrompc

I will chime in, the Denver Metro had three TT series last season, one April/May, another May/June, and another Aug/Sep.

I rode the Boulder TT series (May/June), you get to race against names like Zirbel, Phinney, Hamilton (2nd National TT, Junior World Champ, Olympic Champ, not bad company) and a cast of other pros/ex pros.

Home of that arglye team so you see them aorund a lot.

Tonight as I was making it onto the Boulder track I mentioned to the coach coming off I really enjoyed his 6-day piece in this month's Velonews, "nice article Colby".

Road Racing starts up in April and goes through August with usually a race on Sat and one on Sun. Cross winds up through Nov/Dec.

CU and Colo St are top Div I teams and Colo School of Mines is a top Div II school and also invite the public to most of their races.

In addiiton there are "practice" crits a couple of nights a week in Golden.

Last Sat/Sun/Mon it was in the mid 60s.

We have our own racing org instead of USA cycling and they fight like kittens but generally have the racer at heart.

Hundreds and hundreds of miles of any kind of course you would want want without traffic and nice shoulders.

Not that you ever would but I can leave me house, turn down the sidewalk and be on a bike path that would take me for over a hundred miles with maybe three street crossings.

Dozens of shops, handful of independant makers, home of Velonews.

Lots of mountains, if your into that kind of thing..

Can't believe it didn't make your intial list.

jamiewilson3

If you are looking at NC/SC, there is a very good selection of road racing and tris, but a very poor TT showing. The one exception to that is the Lowes Motor Speedway TT series in Concorde, NC outside of Charlotte. There has been some speculation for how much longer it will be around.

College Park, GA and Asheville, NC have a velodrome and Rock Hill, SC are hopefully getting one.

Here in Greenville, SC there is a 5 time a summer local TT, which is a great first step. It is very casual and low key. This past summer was the first year. Hopefully it will keep building momentum.

Kris Flatlander

From what I've gathered depth of field etc seems to lean towards 1. California, 2. Texas, 3. Colorado in terms of difficulty

With that in mind I'd probably rank them as

1a. Norther California
1b. Southern California
2. Texas
3. Colorado

As for pro team content, you're most likely to see the largest proportion in either Northern California or Colorado IIRC. I know Levi's in NorCal, as was Julich and possibly Landis so I'm sure there's more.

bvfrompc makes excellent points about Colorado, I know a girl who rode for Tokyo Joe's and she raved about the level of competition there. In addition to good cycling in places like Boulder you live around just a ton of high level athletes be they skiiers or olympic bobsleighers or whatever.

You're in an enviable position WJO

Brian Ratliff

If you like road races (as opposed to crits), then Oregon (and particularly Portland) is great. Racing is from Febuary through August for the road season, and then 'cross is huge and runs from Sept through Nov. We have five or six stage races and the Cascade Stage Race draws some US based European pros. There are also several time trial events, many weekend road races, weekly training crits in Portland and Eugene, and some hill climb time trials. Go to see OBRA's website, https://app.obra.org/, to see the race schedule for the year and more information. There's also a velodrome in Portland which hosts several days of racing a week between May (I think) and September.

Road racing favors all around riders with climbing ability. The pure sprinters don't get much except for some crits late in the season and the weekly race series. Stage races like the Cascade favor climbers with TT ability for the overall.

The head of OBRA posts here, under the moniker "obra3". I'd recommend you PM him if you want to know all about Oregon racing. I'm not the best guy to ask questions as I've only been racing for a year.

pharding

Chicago

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MDcatV

I like the DC area of MABRA land. although in district racing is definitely very crit heavy, you've got easy access (inside of 4 hrs.) to lancaster PA, NY/NJ, d42 (so. VA - also crit heavy), and even NC. I live about 20 mi. from DC, but can be in the country by making a right turn out of my subdivision, with rolling terrain, nice scenery, big # of racers, and tolerable weather for year round participation in the sport. Good climbing in the mtns. of western MD and VA, but definitely not the epic climbing stuff that the western US or New England boasts.

Big bonuses are that being the home of the federal gov't, we're a bit more insulated to recession than many other areas of the country, and although the cost of living is higher than hellholes like the rustbelt, texas, or the SE US, it's favorable to areas like northern or southern california or ny/nj metro area.

kensuf

Athens, GA. Great town. Strong cycling community. Close enough to race in Alabama, Tennessee, or the Carolinas.

Psimet2001 

I knew that was coming....there are plenty of other places that would be much better for sure, but we do have an amazingly full schedule. Superweek(s), US Crit Championships, etc.....could be worse.

dgearhart

I lived/raced in NorCal and agree with the comments. However, I moved to Atlanta two years ago and was shocked, yes, shocked at the size of the road scene here. As seen on the Tour de Georgia, there are some amazing climbs. I've climbed all over NorCal, but I have never experienced anything like Brasstown Bald (25% in some sections) anywhere else. Not the highest peak at 4,700 ft, but very challenging ride that will equally challenge any Colorado/California trained cyclist.

Secondly, I find the Atlanta road racing scene has a lot of races within 20 - 30 min of downtown. I used to drive pretty far for road races when I lived in SF. Also, we have more omniums in Georgia that are fun. I remember crits in NorCal were "typically" (not always) a one day race, where crits in the Atlanta area are always part of a TT, Crit, Road Race weekend. It makes for a bigger event (not total racers, field sizes are about 2/3 size of NorCal ~ 40 racers vs. 70 racers per average category race).

Finally and most important, while I'll still give the nod to NorCal/SoCal/Colorado on racer skill, I would put the Atlanta community up against any community (except Boulder) on total group rides. On any given day, there are about 10 - 15 group rides typically consisting of 30 - 50 riders. Of those, I would say that a good half are pretty moderate to strenuous pace with strong riders and racers. I used to race with a team in NorCal that had its on ride for the team and a weekend ride where others could show up, but NorCal has really a couple rides per city which usually align to a team. The majority of strong riders in NorCal (in my experience, so it may not be true for all NorCal racers...also, I think of NorCal as San Jose to Santa Rosa and east to Contra Costa...sorrry Sac, you're NorCal, but 2 hrs from what I am referring to) are strong riders that typically ride in pairs or very small groups. In Atlanta, the many of the best riders form the common weekday world cup type rides and hammer pretty hard on Sat, Sun, Tues, Wednesday, and Thursday. These are mainly Cat 1 - 4 rides.

Didn't mean to write the full essay, but having come from NorCal, I can't say enough positive things about Atlanta cycling. Total surprise for me...

Duke of Kent

We DO have more national level races than anywhere else, as far as I can tell...

Apus^2

Bashtad!

I wish I could do that. I'd head to Boulder or home to Texas/Austin. Maybe one day.

jamiewilson3

Agree with this. I have been living part time in Atlanta for the last 2 years. The weekday rides in the hilly intown neighborhoods will jack up you aerobic capacity. The roads dictate that fast group rides become basically 3-5 minute interval rides.

Duke of Kent

+1.

I have a couple of friends who have worked and gone to school down there, respectively. They say the group rides are amazing.

Another great area for riding, at least between April and October, is Madison, WI. Incredible road, MTB and cross scene in Madison and WI in general, and some pretty good talent coming out of WI in recent years.

And they have a big, huge group ride on Wednesdays that draws a lot of people (observe the cars, not the solo rider):

ericm979

I grew up in NorCal and have raced and ridden in SoCal as well. Both are very nice. But last year I visited Boulder for a week. If I could handle the cold in winter and my wife and I could find work there, I'd move. The cycling is not quite as good as California- the roads are as nice or nicer but there simply are not as many of them, especially the ones with hills. But the city itself is fantastic, both for cycling and for everything else. Drivers in Boulder know how to drive with bikes in traffic! You can ride anywhere in town and on a weekend evening there's so many bikes parked outside eating/drinking establishments that you can't walk on the sidewalk. We were out for dinner in a nice resturaunt and the couple at the next table both had cycling shoes on. Lots of people bike commute. The whole atmosphere is less harried and stressed than the bay area or so cal.

I don't know that much about the CO racing scene as I only did one race there (Mt Evans) but when I lined up for the 45s I thought I was with the P/1/2s until some of the guys turned around so I could see their faces. There's a lot of very fit guys there.

wfrogge

1.Nor Cal
2.So Cal
3. Central Texas
4. Georgia

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where's your love for the volunteer state?

DrWJODonnell

Wow! Thanks for all of the great info. Some stuff I expected, and some stuff I did not know at all.

Now I will say a few things. Ideally, I would be looking for not-so-harsh winters. I like to snowboard, but I like DRIVING to the snow, not living in it. One of the reasons I loved Seattle. So Madison, WI, while I have heard is nice, is also (I believe) brutal in the winter. Same for Chicago.

Also, I feel I can RIDE pretty much anywhere. I don't need super huge group rides. I need quality training time and save the racing for the real races. There was a comment on lots of races within 4 hours. I want to say that I have no desire to drive 4 hours for a race. Yeah, the occasional 'epic' style race or stage race, sure, but for the most part, if the races are within 2 hours or less (1 hour ideal) then I would hit as many as I could. In NJ, I can get to PA racing (most of it) in under 2 hours, NYC racing in 1.5, and pretty much anywhere in NJ in under 2. Knowing these newer type requirements, does this change any of the answers? Are winters in Portland like Seattle? Whatabout Boise? Seems like it would be frigid. I don't expect Atlanta to have snowboarding, and that would be fine as you have a major hub down there, but does it get too hot to ride? Same with Texas. It's a HUGE state. Where in Texas would I have to be to meet the 'hopefully within 2 hours' requirement? CO I would definitely consider, but I fear being snowed in for 6 months of the year. Is this not really a worry?

I appreciate the input guys and am learning a lot here. Having said that, anyone know the laws regarding chiropractic in Belgium??

NeelsGap86

Move to Florida. It's cheaper than living out west.

The only bad thing is the humidity and rain poundage you'll get in the summers.

Other than that, I hear its the most competitive state in the southeast for cycling.

OC Roadie

So Cal is great for year round riding, and racing every weekend from now until Sept, but I don't think we're that TT heavy. Here's a link to our main TT series, this is pretty much it besides stage races.

cmh

I'll put in another plug for Western Oregon which has the highest number of bike racers per capita in the states. Portland has been deemed the most bike friendly city in the US many times by different magazines.

There are several weeknight TT series and weekend series as well through the spring and summer. There are also 5 or 6 really good stage races within 4 hours of Portland - all of which have a TT. Racing is run by OBRA which is a top notch organization. Race results are online almost always the day after a race. And in the results you can click on any rider and see all of their results. Every race uses a high speed finishing camera and I've seen very few mishaps or issues with the results. You can see a schedule and several years of results at www.obra.org.

While there is a lot of rain in the winter, I (and most racers) ride outside year round. This winter has been worse than most and I had 3 weeks of riding only indoors. That was the longest I've been off the roads in 4 years of training and racing out here.

waterrockets 

I haven't avoided a ride due to heat in about four years, when we had a record heat wave. This summer, Denver was hotter than Austin for much of the time.

I'm not just trying to make a case for Austin, but being in Central TX, there really are a lot of races w/in two hours of here. There are a bunch of races in the Dallas area that are that 3.5-4 hour kind of time away.

One nice thing is that many of the races cooperate to get you into one area for the weekend. The Bear Creek Crit and Houston Grand Crit are both like this. Same town, same weekend.

If you pick the right team, you will have teammate hosts in other towns...

BigSean

Again you describe Nor Cal Bay Area. I never drove more the 90 minutes to a race last year. Since there are so many races so close it just didnt make sense to drive for longer then that. Snow boarding can be had in a decent drive time in Lake Tahoe and a few other areas in the Sierra's. Im in San Jose, but Walnut Creek or Danville might be ideal locations for the racing and skiing/snowboarding. Chiropractors dont seem to have any issues with the cost of living in this area.