This is excellent advice. I live in city with hills that rival San Francisco. Also literally across the river, a 5 minute ride, it is dead flat and about 3m above sea level. I run a 172.5mm cranks with 50/34 and 12-27. Occasionally I drive out of town and into the mountains where this setup works perfect as well.

In the future, I [i]could]/i] see myself upgrading to an Ultegra 12-25 over the 105. The 105 groupset if you indeed ar ready to purchase is the cheapest bought from the UK at Ribble. Ridiculously cheap. I live in Canada and even with shipping the price annihilates anything a bike shop can offer.