I broke my original Campagnolo right shift cable in 2000 - 2500 miles after moving to 10 cogs and NOS 2010 Centaur Carbon Ultrashift levers which came with the revised black coiling bushings using the normal rear-of-bar cable routing.

Unlike my old 1996 pointy-hood carbon body levers (originally 8 cogs, but upgraded with a 9 speed cam) shifts to smaller cogs weren't noisy or sluggish, frayed strands didn't spear my thumb, the first I noticed was when it broke. With the shifter in the small cog position the break was where it went around the insert which goes from horizontal behind the bar to vertical tangential to the coiling bushing and it had obviously been fraying for a while.

With pointy-hood levers I got 4000-5000 miles before I broke some strands where they met the cable head.

Is this life reduction normal?

Are there shift cables (maybe Power Cordz polymer cables?) with better fatigue characteristics in this application than Campagnolo OEM?

If I hadn't been slacking on mileage that would have been 5-6 months out of a cable which is silly.

otherwise I love the levers