Gotta second Oakland/Berkeley, Bay area in general. I lived, rode and raced there for over a decade and from a cycling standpoint it's hard to beat. It's a city, but one that's easy to ride in and out of. You can head up any of a number of good steady climbs into and over the Berkeley hills, ride flats South or North and you're easy travel distance to incredible riding in most directions. You can even do some incredible long one way rides and take your bike onto BART(the local fast transit trains) to get home, that's a blast when the wind is nuking along the Straights of Carquinez and you can ride alone at warp speed then grab a train home, kinda like motorpacing! The norcal racing scene is very active with Tuesday night crits in Oakland, a race somewhere within driving distance from February to September (or later if you race cyclocross) and several good clubs to join. There's also a good track with an active racing and training program down in San Jose if track riding interests you.dgregory57 said:
I also lived in the Redmond/Seattle area listed in another post which is also great but a lot wetter than the bay area. Still you get used to riding a bit wet (it doesn't actually rain more, it drizzles a lot more than the bay area but has similar annual rain fall) and the network of trails and good cycling roads is extensive. There's a velodrome in Marymoor park with an active program so that's a plus for this area as well.
The Colorado front range is also hard to beat, but it wasn't on your short list which I suspect is related to employment.
Good luck,
Dave
