I have to add my 2 cents in endorsing Minneapolis as a primo biking city. The inner city lakes alone (Lakes Harriet, Lake of the Isles and Calhoun) are worth the price of admission. They're all connected. There is a rock solid biking community in Minneapolis and in the surrounding area and the outlying countryside offers some of the best rolling hills ever for the serious road biker.

The downside is the brutality of winter. But...I used to ride my mountain bike in the snow along Mississippi River Boulevard for miles and miles. The only danger was that occasional patch of ice under fresh snow and KABOOM...down I'd go.

T'isn't for the frail or the weak of heart. I'm now in sunny, but flat Florida. It's an entirely different biking world down here.

Best to all:
Maureen