East TN is like that... no such thing as flat ground.. middle TN is more like you're describing manitoba. It's pretty flat with a few gentle rolling hills. Living around here kind of forces you to be a good climber. The one nice thing is that I have a good 5 or 6 routes to work with varying amounts of hills such that I can take a different way depending on how I feel. Normally I don't ride in, I ride home but same difference.