If I could have afforded the Carbon soloist when I built my bike, I would have gotten an R3 ... I went with the soloist team and love it. I don't race, but I put a lot of miles on it (200+ a week). You feel the road, which I don't mind at all, and it handles very nicely, descends well, climbs well, etc. Good acceleration, very stiff (not as stiff as the carbon version of course). You can feel the power transfer quickly to the rear wheel - kind of like a 'get up and go' feeling. I originally got it with the idea that at somepoint I would use it as a part time TT bike, but since then my riding style has changed and probably won't be using it for that at all. At somepoint (like 5 years) I'll move to an R3.