I don’t think you have to be terribly fast to care how a bike handles, but then I saw some flat ground last weekend and it was kind of pretty to look at because it was so rare and novel. I do 20 minute power tests every now and then, we literally don’t have 20 minutes of flat within city limits. You can build up a lot of speed very quickly around here.

Crits play to my strengths, if I wanted to race, that’s what I should do. But I’m with you, I’d rather die in the mountains than in a race. But good god, there’s nothing like descending as fast as you can through switchbacks. : )

For a while, I used to have two racing road bikes, by the same company, a carbon traditional road bike (R3), and an alu aero frame (Soloist). Rode them both a lot. I was faster on the aero frame, I’d reach higher speeds sprinting and going down hills, the traditional bike handled better (more to my liking) though. I ride a C3 now, I guess it’s a fondo bike, it has room for 32 mm tires, it’s very nimble. I’ve always loved the way Cervelos ride, I knew this one was for me before I left the parking lot.