Originally Posted by roadCruiser76

I'm kind of torn also between a "racing" road bike versus a more "endurance" type one. I'm way too slow to do actual races, but sometimes I do fast group rides with my cycling friends and I'd like to be able to keep up as much as possible. Of course, sometimes I also do "climbing" rides with these same friends where we go up significant grades, so it would be good to have adequate gearing for that as well. Ideally I'd like something that could do both - a "racing" oriented road bike with a good range of gears so I could conquer some 18/19% grades with no problem.