About Us.
Velo Escapes runs group cycling trips in the world's best riding destinations. Serious routes, half the big-brand price, and everything handled by the founder - on the ride with you.
Carey with riders in downtown Austin.
Every Escape Has Its Epic
We don't sell generic bike tours. We build each escape around a signature epic - the thing you'll still be talking about years from now. Sometimes that's a legendary climb. Sometimes it's being fully immersed in a place and the people in it. And on select routes where the geography cooperates, it's a point-to-point day with the wind at your back from start to finish - one of the rarest, most joyful things in cycling. The epic is different on every trip. Delivering it is the whole job.
Incredible Support
From lead-rider pacing to mechanical response and route logistics, our support system is designed to reduce friction at every stage. You ride with confidence while we handle the complexity behind the scenes.
The Culinary Journey
We believe that a day in the saddle earns a night at the table. Our escapes aren't just cycling trips; they are moving feasts. We collaborate with celebrated local partners and family-run kitchens to bring you the authentic soul of a region. No generic buffets - only curated menus worth the miles.
Flawless Routing
We obsess over the asphalt. Every route is scouted to link the quietest, most scenic roads we can find - forgotten passes and ranch roads over highway shoulders - so your ride is as peaceful as it is breathtaking.
My Story.
"If you want an epic life, you've got to do epic sh*t."
- The mantra. It's on every jersey we make.
The jerseys say it the real way.
I'm Carey Rouse, and Velo Escapes is founder-led in the most literal sense: I build every escape, and then I ride it with you. Not hosting from a support van - riding. Every mile, every trip.
Here's why that matters to me. A few years ago I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. I came back from it to long-distance cycling - and then kept going: a 1,300-mile ride in a single trip, and the documentary that came out of it. A 24-hour ride. A cargo van I turned into a camper with my own hands. I wrote a book about the mindset that carried me through all of it, Find Meaning Through Relentless Discipline. I don't list these things to impress you. I list them because when you hand a cycling company one of your precious vacation weeks, you deserve to know the person leading it has actually lived this.
Somewhere in those miles, the sentence at the top of this page became my operating system. Epic is different for everybody - a desert summit, a wine-country immersion, a week of riding you weren't sure you had in you. But it never happens on the couch, and for most riders with a real job and a real family, the forty hours it takes to plan an epic trip is exactly the reason it never happens at all. That's the gap Velo Escapes closes. I build the escape - the routes, the hotels, the tables, the support - and you show up and ride away with the story you'll be telling for the next ten years.
Meet the Founder.
Founder & Ride Architect
Based in Austin, Texas, Carey is an author and endurance athlete - and above all, a lifelong cyclist and lover of the open road.
The record speaks for itself: a comeback from congestive heart failure to long-distance cycling, a 1,300-mile ride and the documentary that came out of it, a 24-hour ride, and a camper van built with his own hands.
Every itinerary, hotel partnership, and route decision passes through Carey's hands. And when the escape starts, he doesn't wave you off from a parking lot - he's in the group, on the road, every trip he leads.