Izod, I am sorry to differ with you as I enjoy your posts, but I found Albuquerque most unpleasant to bike in. I grew up in Albuquerque and have since lived in Minneapolis, Princeton, Washington DC, Boulder, Little Rock, LA, and Madison. I agree with you that Albuquerque's elevation is nice, but the dirt and grime of the area got old. Not just the graffiti sprayed everywhere, but the lack of green or water, I mean the Rio Grande is a joke, it's not even a stream much less a river. But the worst part is the crime. There are many areas you absolutely could not go for fear of your life or witnessing a drug deal, even during the day. Every weekend is a given someone will be killed in a gang related shooting. CNN just ran story reporting that New Mexico is the worst place to live in the US in terms of crime, and ranked 50th, by a large margin, for education.

In terms of best places to bike, there are so many great places in the US it's hard to pick just one.

But if I had to, I would pick Minneapolis-St. Paul. There is so much in and out city biking, so many paths, 15,000 lakes around the state, as well as the Mississippi, St. Criox, and Minnesota Rivers, you could bike an entire season and never bike the same route. Downtown Minneapolis is popular, with all the arts and theaters, the energy level is so high, it's so clean and surprising safe, even the few bad areas around Lake street I biked, never had a problem or fear I did as the southwest parts of Albuquerque. As well, with two dozen college campuses around the Minneapolis area, the excitement that young people bring, it's really fun.

Second I would say Colorado had some really good biking, stricktly for trail mountain biking. It's just awesome. Paved road biking is OK, nothing to write home about. The paved road biking around the ski resorts suck, but in and around Boulder are pretty good, Denver so-so.

But again, there are so many places in the great Unites States to bike, it's hard to pick just one!

Harperdream