I just went to the Giant site to take a look at the "Via", since I wasn't familiar with it. While it is categorized under the "On Road" section of their site, I would not consider this bike to be a "road bike"...it is more of a cruiser or casual riding type of bike. A true road bike would be the Avail and TCR model lines...or perhaps even the Dash, which is actually a flat-bar road bike. So that would be the reason behind the lower price of the Via. The Avail 3 is Giant's lowest priced road bike at $790..which comes in below your $1,000 limit...so you could take a look at that one, but the component group on that bike is of much lower quality (hence the price). You might want to consider checking out some used bikes (provided that they fit you properly) that have a higher grade of component group (I'd look for at least Shimano 105 or SRAM Rival) on Craigslist or the "for sale" section of this and other cycling forums.