I agree for triathlon, Socal >> Norcal, but for the OP, where cycling is a priority as well as IT, Norcal >> Socal.

Agree with your points about the relatively mild climate of Denver, which is nice, but make no mistake about it, Norcal & Socal temps and weather still >> Denver.

Just look at weather averages for both cities - Denver's average low is below 30 for nearly 4 months of the year, where as Palo Alto's doesn't even hit 30 once for the average low. Of course, the mids will be in the middle and above 30 if you choose right in Denver, but in Palo Alto, temps are regularly 40-45F for riding in Jan-Mar. In Socal, it's 5-10F higher - if it werent for the valleys in the Santa Monica mountains, I could wear shorts year round in LA and SD comfortably.

There is? We're a desert, you know.

FYI, I agree that if you're looking for year-round outdoor training, California is your best bet. The only problem with living in California is that you have to be around a bunch of Californians. :P Just kidding...

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Steve Perkins

Definately not Central Illinois.

This place sucks. In the winter it's freezing, and in the summer it's ridiculously hot. No scenery besides corn fields. Constantly very windy.

It's not the other Californians that are a problem - you'll barely see the wannabes and actors/actresses when you're training.

It's the cost of living, particularly home prices, that'll kill you.

Despite my love of CA for triathlon and most other things, I will honestly admit that due to the cost of living, I find it a relative wash between living in a non-happening, truly snowy place like Rochester NY (where there's snow on the ground 5 months out of the year regularly and no sun for 3 months straight) and Santa Monica for most folks where money is an issue. If I lived in Rochester NY, I could train 2x as much as I do now and retire 10 years early, AND live in a 6 bedroom house with a 4 car garage for 2/3rd the price of my current house. Here in Norcal, I will likely be working until age 65, and have to cram all my weekday training in between 4AM-6AM, so I'm in the dark and/or indoors anyways for all weekdays.

So, unless money is no consideration (which is almost always is unless you've got over $5million in the bank for retirement already), it's more worthwhile to go where your occupation and interests lead you and make triathlon work with and around that as best as possible. Don't worry about missing out San Diego or Palo Alto or LA - you're getting big financial and time advantages from not living there.

But cost aside, CA >> other states for year-round training and Socal trumps all, unless you need the elite community of Boulder and that's more a function of the people there than the actual weather and locale.

Hey everyone! Let's all just shout where we currently live and say that's the best! Sounds good!

For real though, you can make just about anywhere a pretty decent place to ride/train. Trust me, I used to live in Iowa and even we managed to have a pretty damn good tri scene, thanks to the great people I rode with more than any great terrain or weather.

However, clearly some places are just plain and simple better than others based on the criteria that the OP listed. Reading some of the responses, I fear people are either in denial, or simply just not that well traveled.

So for all my hubris, where would I throw my lot? Can't say, I'm not done search to settle down quite yet, but having lived up and down the east coast, in the midwest, and now on the west coast, SoCal definitely is unsurpassed for climate and really just sheer joy of being outdoors. However, I have always loved the PacNW and NorCal and would love to hang my hat up there for a time as well.

The problem with SoCal is that you end up becoming one of those sissies who wears thermal tights when its 75 degrees outside:).

... or one of those sissies who doesn't bother going out if it might rain...

I might be an idiot but I turned down a transfer to San Jose to freeze my butt off in Ottawa, but I kind of like our communist governement, giving tax money to the government till June 15th every year before I pay myself and minus 20C winters and some skiing. Plus we have an awesome triathlon scene here.

However, if I could live close to work in San Jose/Silicon Valley, it is a good place for triathlon and also professional opportunities. Having said that, the cost of living/real estate would put me 20 years behind where I am now. So financially, makes no sense.

I travelled around the country last year, partly in search of this answer. I've yet to visit Arizona (that is planned for this fall tho), but the place I came back to was the mountains. More specifically, the Rockies. The Denver area (all the way to Boulder and even Fort Collins) is a cyclist's paradise. I've yet to visit another place that has more bike lanes, shoulders, and trails to ride on than this area (Boulder especially), and with the mountains to constantly look at and climb up to, it hardly gets better for me. I haven't spent much time here in winter (except to snowboard), but from the sound of it, the winters are way better here than they are in my home state (OK). With the dry air and low winds (relatively) it sounds like it wouldn't be difficult to cycle year round here (maybe someone who has lived here for a bit can chime in about that?). Basically, if you think Nashville has a great climate, you will absolutely love Denver.

Also, if you don't like to be around a lot of people, and you don't mind some actual cold winters, western Montana seems to be a great place (it's stunningly beautiful). As far as simple beautiful terrain goes, I thought eastern Utah (the scenic drive to Moab) was one of the best areas I've been to. Santa Fe is also a very cool town with good weather and cycling. I would avoid most of the northwest. Great place when the sun shines and you can still train when it doesn't, but the lack of sunshine would likely really mess with someone who likes to be outdoors and isn't used to not having it (there are dry, sunny places tho, Bend is supposed to be pretty amazing). Couer d'Alene is beautiful, but I had a harder time getting a good conversation with people there than in NYC. San Francisco is supposed to be one of the best cities in the world to live in if you can afford it.

To narrow it down tho, if you want pure warm weather and lots of shoulder and bike lanes for cycling year round, northern Florida is hard to beat. The panhandle and Gainesville in particular have great cycling communities. But, to be close to a big airport, Clermont (just outside of Orlando) would be what you were looking for. With a lot of ITU triathletes (as well as world class track stars) it has a great cycling and running vibe. Plus, the pools around Florida can be really cheap (I was paying $2/swim at a neighborhood lap pool in Gainesville).

The other close to a big airport city that would be good for cycling is, of course, San Diego. Pretty much any city along the southern california coast or even out closer to the mountains seems to be pretty amazing. Provided that it is far enough from places like LA that it isn't overly crowded.

I've also yet to visit towns like Madison, WI, and Minneapolis, MN, but I think those are likely too cold at times for your (and mine) preference. New Hampshire (white mountains), Vermont, and Maine are all spectacular areas, but then again, likely too cold in winter.

Chattanooga could also be a good candidate, as its only a couple hours away from the ATL airport, and it has some really beautiful places to ride.

Hope some of all this random info helps. Let me know if you have questions about a particular area. I've spent time cycling in most.

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-Bryan Journey
Travel Blog | Training Blog | Facebook Page

I've just recently moved to Tucson from Kingston, Ontario. So far I haven't found the heat to be that bad. When it's hot out, it's hot under the sun but not so bad in the shade. I commute EVERY day to work (been here since the end of May) and on the days where it was 110, I didn't find it unbearable. The lack of humidity makes ALL the difference in the world. Having grown up on the east coast of Canada where low humidity is counted in the 80% range, to moving to Ontario where the humidity bottoms out in the mid to high 70%'s; moving to Tucson has been a dream.

I have found in general the roads inside the city aren't too bad but once you get outside of the city they can get nasty (am thinking of Valencia as I tend to do a 4 mile stretch on it in the morning), however they're not nearly as bad as some of the roads I've ridden on in Ontario after winter. The one big thing I wasn't ready for was how DIRTY the roads are. Before the monsoons started, the edges of the roads were pretty bad with a bunch of crap (gravel, broken glass, and the worst being the street cleaner bristles); now with the monsoons it's gotten a lot worse but it can be mitigated by choosing the right kind of tyre.

The drivers in general tend to be aware of cyclists and give us a decent berth when passing, at least more than what I'm used to. There are bike lanes ALL OVER the city, and there are also some bike only (and pedestrian of course) cycling spots. Mt. Lemmon sees a LOT of traffic on the week-ends, and is a fun ride both for it's ups and it's down.

I have no idea what winter here will be like, but I am SUPER excited to experience it as I have love/hate relationship with snow ( I LOVE to hate it!!!!).

As far as the city itself goes, we live very centrally and like the fact that we have everything pretty close by. By pretty close by you should read this as it takes us 15 minutes to drive anywhere. We are dependent on a car as we have 4 kids and riding bikes everywhere just doesn't work well yet.

Just my $0.02 from a person who JUST moved to Tucson.

It's not going to give you the warm factor but Denver.

Ogden, UT.

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The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

Carlsbad or Encinitas, if money was no object and/or I could land a job there or work from home.

1. Austin, TX
2. Lakeway, TX

If I could live anywhere in the US...I would still live in Canada.

Agreed. Full disclosure, I am Canadian.

However, I have had the pleasure of traveling for work and pleasure throughout a lot of the U.S. For the longest time, when I have ever been asked this question my answer has been wither south or north of San Francisco proper - Palo Alto or Santa Rosa areas. Both are great for cycling. My other answer is a bit vague - somewhere in the Portland to Bend area of OR. Again outstanding cycling opportunities.

Regardless - home and what you make of the training area of where you end up is what you end up making of it. Most triathletes would think where I have lived most of my life ridiculous, yet I think it's a great area. Works for me!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I'm sorry, I'll always be an East Coast / I-95 kinda guy ... I get suspicious if I'm around too many people that are happy & polite all the time; like they know something I don't know, and have no intention of sharing

That being said, I could go with (re)viciTim's NC suggestion for the reasons he stated, plus, as a surfer I'd have the Outer Banks to play around on [yeah, I've been on TV as one of those knuckleheads that go out during a hurricane]

I've lived in Florida a time or two, and ... well, I'm sure I could get used to it, but again, I've read too many Carl Hiaasen detective stories not to be more than a little nervous around locals.

One more East Coast benefit ... AWESOME BEER, especially around here [South Jersey]!!! Great breweries in NY, NJ, PA, DE, MD

Of course, NONE of that helps the OP, whatsoever ... just going all "Chamber of Commerce" on y'all here

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Where I do now, Santa Barbara.

I'd put (north)west coast beer against the east coast challengers any day of the week. Elysian, Russian River, Lagunitas, Deschutes, Bridgeport, Ninkasi...

Anyway, I haven't lived there and its rainy and chilly in the winter but Seattly still seems very rideable year round. Major airport. Economy seems to have held up reasonably well. Not sure about IT except for Microsoft.

Fredericksburg, TX (70 miles west of Austin and 70 miles north of San Antonio): inexpensive housing, lots of great restaurants, miles and miles of hilly low volume roads with outstanding scenery.

That leaves 65 days of clouds. Two whole months of them, plus the shit that falls out of them, be it the unconcerning rain or snow.

Yes, I've heard good things. Of those, only Lagunitas distributes over here that I've seen, so that's all I've tried

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Same here. Go to school in the Bay Area, but working in CHI for the summer. The 4 or so 100+ days have been making me wish I was back in California, and I'm originally from the Midwest, so it's not like I've never been through this before...

San Diego seems like the perfect answer to it all...

Park Slope, Brooklyn, or possibly Manhattan along the lower west side of the park.

(Though it's not probably where you would want to live, but that's not what you asked).

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Empire Tri Coach
Team Gatorade Endurance
USATF Coach | NYRR Distance Pacer
Dad of twins

Can't think of any place that meets my desires:

1) Cost of living of where I am now (Houston)
2) Weather of coastal So. Cal.
3) Terrain variety of Houston (i.e., flat) and mountainous (either mountain range in the US will do)
4) Quick access to rural roads
5) Closer to the equator (for maximum and consistent light year round)

For those spouting Austin, all I can say is "overrated".