I've come to realize that you never really feel like you leave a stage when bike riding (or any sport). you certainly improve. But it's like transitioning from high school, college, and professional football. You always hit the noob stage because you've simply made new goals for yourself. So I can see why my initial post may have seemed ignorant to you guys.
Yep, I've never seen so many overweight dudes with more energy than me when I first started, and that's because I was in pretty good shape then.