Hi all! I'm looking to buy my first road bike and would welcome some advice from the experts.

About me: Male. 6' tall and 210 lbs currently. I can realistically reach 185-190 lbs with further diet and more riding, but not a lot lower since I'm a "large frame" type of guy.

Current bike: Trek 7.3fx which I've owned since 2005 and has been a great city bike. It's on the heavy side at ~ 28 lbs

Type of riding: I rediscovered the pleasure cycling in 2012 and had a blast riding my Trek around NYC, Central Park, Prospect Park and in the Palisades area. I put about 2000 miles on it on primarily flat to rolling hills terrain, riding solo for the most part. I can average about 15-16 mph and have a rather low power output of 200 watts (see below). I started doing short rides and now can do 50-70 miles.

Injuries: I have a (re) torn meniscus on my left knee which bothers me when putting the hammer down in steep hills. I'm going to PT but I will likely need surgery to repair it later this year. After that I believe I can deliver further power and gain more strength with fewer limitations.

Goal: I want to ride longer (i.e. centuries), improve my climbing and take on steeper hills/mountains (I will never be 140 lbs but can certainly train more, benefit from a light bike) and certainly improve the level of comfort on longer rides. I would also like to join a club and ride with other people. So it seems like I need a proper road bike!

Budget: 3-4k. While it is a lot of money, I'm a big believer of buying something good that will be useful for many years and challenges me to ride more.

Next Bike: This is where I need some advice. It seems like there are way too many options in that price range and can get pretty confusing. I think some of the priorities would be carbon frame/fork - light weight (given my large frame), strong at climbing and ability to put the power down efficiently (in the interest of saving my meniscus in the long-term). Comfort for long rides would be a nice feature. I am not planning on racing, so "ultra fast" or "corners like it's on rails" would be a nice to have not a must have. Good components are important to me (but not necessarily the absolute best - Ultegra is probably enough).

I stopped by R&A Cycles in Brooklyn and saw some nice bikes (customer service was not so great...). There was a 2012 Cervelo R3 Team for 3500 which looked interesting and saw some Pinarello's FP Quattros within that price range. But then when it comes to other niche brands or volume manufacturers (Specialized/Canondale/Trek) it becomes blurry. Plan would be to narrow the search to 3-5 and then test ride them

Sorry for the long intro but hopefully it is enough detail for some of you to help me with some advice.

Thank you!!