I have two minds about racing. One part of me likes seeing people do things I can't do myself so in that sense, the equipment is unimportant. However, the other part of me firmly believes that the real value of racing is not just the human achievements but in what it returns to the average person. One of the biggest benefits we have with our sport is that there is a much tighter connection between what happens in the racing world and what ends up on our own hands. Call me selfish but if racing didn't spur on technological innovations that I can have in the very near future then I'm not really all that interested. Sometimes it is about the bike... especially my bike.