Best cities for cycling

Are you trapped on your bike-trainer waiting for the end of spring thaw so you can hit the trails? Then you might want to start dreaming of the best cities for riding. Consider the  list put out by Mpora on the 10 best cities in the world to mountain bike:

1. 10 acre park dedicated to mountain bikers (single-track) in Hong Kong
2. Table Mountain and Lion’s Head in Cape Town, South Africa
3. 600-metre vertical climb near Salave just five miles outside of Geneva, Switzerland
4. 60 miles of paths in Pentland Hills Regional Park in Edinburgh, Scotland
5. From Caballero in Encino or Sullivan Park near Los Angeles, California, USA
6. Mas Pelegri near  Girona, Spain
7. Reykjavik, Iceland
8. Manly Dam in Sydney, Australia
9. Chacaltaya (for downhill) and La Paz (for cross country) in The Andes
10. North Shore or Grouse Mountain in Vancouver, B.C., Canada

If you want more of a leisurely ride, consider Frommer’s top 10 European cities for cycling:

1. London, UK: With the new municipal bike-loan scheme, this city has gone from choked cyclist nightmare, to a biker’s paradise. The first 30 minutes on the bike-loan are free.
2. Berlin, Germany: While there are a few steep hills in Berlin, there are also a plethora of bike paths, making this one of world’s cycle-friendliest cities. To devise your own bike routes, consider using the BBBike online route-planner.
3. Paris, France: This city didn’t used to be bike-friendly but the introduction of Velib, the city’s bike-sharing plan in 2007, has changed all that.
4. Copenhagen, Denmark: This Danish capital runs on the Bycyklen Kobenhavn, a non-profit bike-loan program that was established way back in 1985. If you need to rent a bike, consider going to CPH, where profits are spent to sent bikes to African villages.
5. Rome, Italy: Walking can be scary in Rome, never mind biking. Still, this European city really wants to change all that. There are now 10 official bike paths with great city-planned bike routes. The bike-sharing program is known at Atac.
6. Munich, Germany: With around 125 miles of bike paths, this city is great for cyclists. Guided tour options are also available.
7. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Considered a classic among cycling tourists, Amsterdam is known for bicycles. The very friendly Rent-a-Bike Damstraat offers every type of bike imaginable.
8 & 9. Lyon and La Rochelle, France: It’s first bike-sharing program was introduced in the Rhone-Alpes city of Lyon, and more recently a bike-taxi system was launched. But it’s the Atlantic coast city of La Rochelle that merits the top-of-the-list for cycling tourists in France. It introduced the first bike-sharing system in France, back 1974, and there continues to be about 60 miles of cycle tracks in the Ile de Re, an island lined to La Rochelle by a two-mile bridge.
10. Tronheim, Norway: The country’s third-largest city is so cycle-friendly it has it’s own form of the Trampe, the world’s first bike lift.

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