Road: Texas Hill Country

No American cycling market is as undervalued as that of Texas. The combination of widespread affluence, a highly international population, and mild winter make it a road riding hotbed second only to California.

Imagine a world where the roads are built for riding, not driving. That’s Texas Hill Country. It centers on the lovely town of Fredricksburg. Its thick network of roads (known locally as “FM” roads – “Farm to Market”) appear to shorten the distance from nowhere to nowhere. It’s you, the endless rolling pasture, a million cows, and every variety of barbed wire known to man.

The popularity of the road riding here is due to the beauty of the terrain, the challenge of the relentless wind and the climbing, the utter lack of traffic, and the fact it’s just a short drive from both Austin and San Antonio – two cycling-mad metros with a combined population of over 5 million.