I don't race any more, but arguably this would be the $2500 race bike. its my latest road bike, a 2011 CAAD10 which I bought for $1500 last oct.
lately I've been riding it a lot. I don't own a car.

I also have this Surly Big Dummy that I've ridden a lot thru the years.

in the last 5 years, I've lost count how many times I have moved. I know for sure that I moved all my belongings at least 3 times via BD.

which of course is yet another inspiration to get rid of that much more junk...

at any rate, I've been fortunate enough to seemingly pick jobs or maybe its that I pick the place to live where I'm as close to a job as possible.
once I get things organized, I pretty much shoot for having as much time to myself as possible, including having the time to ride before work.
currently my job is less than 5 miles away. Its a super easy "commute" up the hill to work which takes less than 30 minutes, but being that I love to ride, and I'm fortunate to have Pebble Beach as my backyard, my favorite daily rhythm is to ride before work. thats a no brainer!

typically I'm scheduled for a stretch of days in a row. so I organize my uniforms, food, etc... and setup my locker to handle the up coming days, which reduces the demand for me to carry a bunch of stuff too and from work. Typically I don't even have to go grocery shopping during this timeframe.

so I get to ride for an hour or two before work, I get my ride in, hit the employee gym, shower, and clock in. When the shift is done, I either ride yet another hour or so thru Pebble Beach, or I can just bomb straight down the hill which is about 10 minutes.

bike never goes "into" work, but instead we have dedicated bike lockers, which completely enclose the bike.