I liked John E's approach above: 46/34 on 13-28. I don't see the point of carrying the hardware for gearing that you'll never use. It's because we like to think that we have the same machinery as the pro cyclists (though we don't have their legs or lungs). And the manufacturers egg us on in this delusion, and won't provide cassettes built for sport riding -- starting and ending with larger tooth counts.

The choice, at least for someone who's gotten over the shame of riding a bike with lower gears, is to build your own cassettes, or just go with smaller chainrings. The former (like a 16-28 freewheel or cassette) gives the possibility of more gears that are closer together, but the latter is cheaper.