The midwest is FLAT

[deeannef]

This happens all the time at the beach. What few hills we have in Huntington Beach, you often have to peddle downhill to keep your speed up. Another nasty thing about living by the beach is that the wind can do 180's in the afternoon. If you time and organize your ride right, you can actually go with the wind the entire ride or worse, be against the wind your entire ride.

[andtckrtoo]

Hey you could live in the Bay Area of California. We have hills. We have Mountains and we have flats. We also get wind. I did the LiveStrong 100 mile ride a few years ago and the first 50 miles were a wonderfully rolling hills through forests and the "pretty" side of Santa Clara County. The second 100 miles was flat, into a killer head wind for 20 miles. Then at mile 70 we have a 22% grade for 2 miles, a few rollers, a couple short steep climbs, then a nice down hill. Then it was rollers into the wind for the rest. I was never so happy to get off my bike!

Oh, and after all of that... I'll take mountains over wind ANY day. No questions asked. I'd rather climb 2000 feet then ride into the wind. My allergies and everything else go crazy.