Florida can be very flat in certain areas but most of the cyclist travel once in a while to Clermont (20 mins depends of your location) and we have quite a few hills back to back. We do a lot of 100 miles and triathlons here. I'm riding a compact because of the hills here and it helps me so far. I asked Performance Bike last week the same question because I'm getting the 6800 and they say to stick with a compact. Good luck.