Tampa’s recipe for great cycling: sunny skies, friendly businesses, and waterfront beauty.
With year-round blue skies, flat terrain, and a network of bike lanes that tops 100 miles, Tampa — a bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Community — has more designated bicycle-friendly businesses than any other city in the country, many of which line the Cass Street and Jackson Street corridors.
Though cars are still king here (and in much of Florida), you can find world-class routes to explore: spinning along Bayshore Boulevard as the sun sets, crossing Tampa Bay on the 10-mile causeway of the Courtney Campbell Trail, or enjoying a day on the 38-mile, multi-use Pinellas Trail from Tarpon Springs to St. Petersburg.
Florida isn’t known for elevation changes, but Alafia — just over a half-hour from Tampa — is a noteworthy exception. It’s a reclaimed phosphate mine that’s been lovingly turned into a mountain biking mecca, with kids’ trails all the way up to off-camber ledges, ridgetop rollers, corkscrewy berms, and some surprisingly intimidating drops that add up to almost 200 feet.
For gravel, head to Withlacoochee State Forest, Green Swamp Wilderness, and Devil’s Creek, which together form an enormous protected area that’s spiderwebbed with unpaved roads. The events here are a blast. Be sure to check out Bikes & Beers Gran Fondo in December and the Bike MS Citrus Tour every spring.