GFish: I can relate to your position. I'm also 55 and put in 3700 miles in my first season last year. 2500 of those miles on a Trek 7300 Hybrid. I bought the hybrid because the Salesman saw me as a 280# old guy (now 225#). Not a bad bike but not a bike for spending hours at a time especially where it's as windy as here. I wanted a road bike so I set it as a reward for completing my first metric century. So I start reading about road bikes and find out most people recommend 105 level components. Thinking that CF for "someone like me" was just being a poseur I looked at and rode all the major mfg's relaxed geo aluminum road bikes. Couldn't tell a whole lot of difference between them.

I was ready to buy a bike and was down to the finalists. A Trek 2.3 and a Cannondale Synapse Alloy 5. Both bikes were $1250. So I go and ride the 2.3 again but as I was leaving the Salesman said before you leave take a ride on a 4.5 Madone (CF) I thought why not see what all the buzz is about? 1/4 mile away on said oil and chip road I was thinking "Wow this is really smooth!" I started looking for rougher and rougher roads to test it's smoothness. 2 hours later I returned to the LBS knowing I had to have this bike. Poseur be damned. $1800. So I paid $550 more for a bike I can ride twice as far and not feel vibrated into numbness.

I suggest you cast away your preconceptions and ride some CF bikes. If you ride nice smooth blacktop and can't tell much difference good for you. You've saved some money. If you ride the kind of roads I ride the difference will astound you.