I am planning on starting back into Skyrim again as a pure mage character who I am going to RP with. I wanted to start him at Winterhold but it seems that even the first quest is a bit tough for a lvl 1 mage so I was wondering if any of you guys/girls know of a good starting town or city that I can use for my character preferably one that has a decent amount of places to explore that will help him out with gaining some experience before he joins up with the College.

Well there are two categories of magi:

Offensive: More for fighting and killing
Crowd Control: illusion and summons and such

If you want to be offensive go Altmer, if you want to be more in the back controlling the fight, the go Breton.

all I can tell right now.

My Khajiit started as a low-level mage at the college, and even on Expert, he got through it all right. I'd suggest getting the Novice Restoration perk ASAP, so that you can easily heal injuries. And consider hiring on a good follower, at least for a time. My Altmer had his banana-colored buns saved by Illia a number of times.

Don't forget to use your race's inherent power, if applicable. Highborn has saved my Altmer a number of times. And my Dunmer's life would have been far easier if she'd made proper use of her Flame Cloak ability.

Before any detailed pointers and general guideline can be suggested...

What type of Mage are you RPing, as in...what are the schools of magic that you are interested in?