Jacobi

I've got the choice to move to one of these five cities for work, which one has the best cycling scene? I want to do road races, TT's and Crits. I would also like a nice group to tour with and just regular weekend club rides. I guess I just want to do it all. I ride alot right now and have a full suspension mountain bike, road bike, and tourer so I'm ready for it all. Well, here are the choices:

Davenport, IA
Dubuque, IA
Cedar Rapids, IA
Rapid City, SD
Lincoln, NE

Please just give me any info that you have on these cities.

Thanks,
-Barry-

tompete

Check out these two websites for a cycling club in Lincoln and whats happening in Nebraska with cycling events. While I'm not from Lincoln, I have ridden on some of their organized rides, seem like a good group of folks.

https://greatplainsbikeclub.org/
https://www.nebraskacyclingnews.com/

Iowegian

I don't have any info on the cycling scene in these cities but have been to them all and can give you a few other thoughts.

Davenport and Dubuque are river towns (on the big Mississippi). That's pretty cool in my book although Davenport, being part of the quad cities, is part of a pretty big metro area. Both towns are in fairly hilly areas with Dubuque being smaller and more hilly. Cedar Rapids is a nice small city, with a smaller river through it. Rapid City has a great climate, is in a beautiful area (Black Hills) but is pretty isolated up there in S.D. Lincoln is a great college town with all the amentities thereof but is out in the middle of Nebraska.

I don't know which city would have the best cycling scene, but Lincoln, being a college town would certainly have its share of bicyclists. How many times you want to ride around the Nebraska countryside is another question. I know there are great rides out of Dubuque up/down/across the Mississippi but don't know what kind of organized scene is there or any of the other towns. Dubuque and Cedar Rapids have smaller colleges and I'm sure there's something in or around Davenport as well. Not sure if Rapid City has a college or not but I would guess there's an established sporting scene there due to geography and climate.

TheNJDevil

I live in Rapid City. If you want a racing scene, Rapid City would not be a good choice. The climate here is probably the best and if you like Mountain Biking, Rapid City would certainly be the best choice. Ther are a couple colleges in town also. There is a cycling team based in a town about 40 minute drive north on the interstate, Spearfish, SD. I've ridden with them a couple of times, and they are all a bunch of nice guys. They even waited for me on a couple of the longer climbs.