haha. Nothing wrong with being a pure roadie. I know some guys who are pure xc. Live life and enjoy cycling. Who knows maybe in 5 years I will be a roadie cause I am done with mtb. Or maybe I will be a bike pimp and have 5 bikes, 1 for each discipline including winter cycling. (hmmm that could be fun)

As for age being meaningless. In one area I notice a huge difference. I could, would and did anything when I was a teen. I was builitproof and felt that I was. Guess what. I am in better shape and stronger now but I break. Part of getting older. There are other bonus's but in reality there are differences. ...

Not that they can't be overcome.