Being someone who has owned Ultegra and now SRAM Rival '09, I can say after thousands of miles on each, Rival is better. IMO, it comes in just a hair under DA 7800 overall. The crankset on Rival has a better stiffness to weight ratio, it's lighter than Ultegra SL, and shifter/brakes work better. I can see why many pro teams are moving to SRAM, their groups are solid. I'm not a Shimano hater either, love their stuff, but I really like Rival both for performance and price.