In all seriousness, unless it is a very tri-specific need, I usually go to Bicycle Sports Shops also. They have two locations in Austin. The one downtown is way big.
You could also check out Nelo’s up north. I don’t think he has anything close to that price point however.
Without getting too much into the politics of the Barton Springs bike shops…
The biggest selection of road bikes that I have seen in Austin for all price points is at 360 Cycleworks on the west side of downtown on 360. They have a lot of Felt and Cannondale and some Fuji.
Bicycle Sport shop is the local Trek and Specialized dealer. I have not been in there for quite awhile, but they historically have a pretty good selection of bikes, pretty high volume.
ATC has a pretty wide range of Fuji and Cervelo road bikes as well as Cervelo and Scott Tri bikes. Fuji has some nice bikes in the $1500 price point.
J&A Felt and Guru road bikes as well as some higher end Calfee road bikes. They also have Kuota, Guru, QR, Felt, and Aegis tri bikes.
ATC and J&A tend to cater more towards the tri crowd, so they have a lower number of road bikes than 360 or Bicycle sport shop. The good thing about ATC, J&A, and Bicyclesport Shop is that they are all within about 1 mile of each other, so you can check them all out before buying something.
Follow the links to “fit” and then “power fit”.
I needed to get my bike refit anyway since the bsg here in SA never did it right. And, then he’d tweak one thing and never check anything else. I was tired of things hurting, etc. And, I’m really trying to work on my bike split this winter so I wanted to make sure everything was good to go before I invested the time and energy to get a coach, etc.
Sooo…I headed up to Austin. I thought $150 was a lot–until I was there. I had an awesome experience. It takes some time–I was there for almost three hours. My fit was WAY off. We ended up dropping my seat about 5cm, shortening my stem by over 2cm and some other adjustments. They put you on the Computrainer and look at your pedal stroke but also test your power at different positions. So, they start with a “normal” good fit and then tweak it ever so slightly forward and back, up and down to see where the max power output is, etc. I have a LOT of work to do (especially in the power to weight ratio area) but just from that refit, I picked up an average of 40 watts. And, best of all, now when I ride, NOTHING hurts. It fits me right–I’m also able to hit higher numers on the bike now. I still can’t hold them for real long but I can get there and I can work on it w/o being in pain, etc. It was worth every penny. If you go, ask for Zane Castro. He rocks.
Since your friend is looking specifically for a road bike, I’d add Bicycle Sport Shop, 360 Cycle Works, and Buck’s Bikes to the list. They’re likely to have a better selection of road bikes than the tri-specific shops do.
Big recommendation for Bicycle Sports Shop (either location). Also check out Nelo’s Pro Cycles on Anderson and 360 Cycleworks (on 360, duh). I think either shop will treat you right, especially for road.
http://bicyclesportshop.com/
http://www.nelosprocycles.com/
http://360cycleworks.com/index.cfm
Wow, big thanks to everyone for all of the responses. I was hoping everyone would agree on 1 store, should have known better :). Looks like 360 cycleworks and Bicycle Sports Shop may be good bets for large selections of road bikes. I’m a big fan of Felt due to what they offer for relatively low prices and it looks like Bicycle Sports Shop doesn’t carry them? Anyhow I will pass this info on and hopefully my friend will get a chance to visit several of these shops you’ve all recommended and get a feel for them.
Thanks again and good like to anyone racing Tinsel this Sunday!
Brian
Paulo… I have also seen the horror. Horrors that you have seen. 
A guy from 360 Cycleworks was last August the mechanic at a USAT youth development camp in Austin. He gave me a card at the camp and I went to the store a couple of days later looking for a hard to find item. They did not have it in stock, but I liked their attitude.
Sergio
I’ve never been to either shop but I just followed the Jack and Adams link and Desiree Ficker will be there Satirday night. That’s reason enough to shop there.