DMC707

Ok, thats just not the question you linked to with a quote is all.

For the day, and for anything else outside the boundaries of professional road racing, I would say that yes, those would have been competitive race machines at the local level in whatever category you were riding in up to perhaps 2005. Around that time is when 16 lb carbon bikes were getting more and more affordable , and the average Joe Blow Cat 3 or 4 could justify adding one to the stable
-- this was the true death of steel for racing, not some euro pro's racing up the Alps a decade earlier


The Waterford does have a more sportive oriented build though and likely wasnt intended for racing originally, (not the frame, the frame can do it, - but bikes built solelly for racing generally arent built with a triple)

I agree that today, -- you have to have a bit of chutzpah to show at the local Tuesday night crits on a steel machine, - because the field is a sea of black bikes, but if your strong enough to stay in the field, why not? And with a set of deep section wheels, you'll make up some lost watts when its time to take a pull


I grew up racing in the 90's and saw all the trends start cycling through -- aluminum, Ti, early bonded CF, early OCLV, the early sloping TT bikes from Giant -- it was all good fun and a guy could really get caught up in trying to stay abreast of the latest and greatest trends ---- until you realize that you are still getting dropped by plenty of people riding conventional steel

Today there are plenty of guys on 14 lb $8000 machines asking similar questions of themselves when they get dropped by guys on entry level 105 equipped carbon machines ---
The materials have changed a little, but racing is the same