Thanks so much for the input and support. This whole biking thing is a secret life in some ways for me. I don't really have friends who ride, so I am so incredibly grateful that I found this board.

It's funny, I thought the hard part of riding a road bike initially for me would be the integrated shifting, because I'm a total clod and my hands are messed up. But after 15 minutes on a trainer getting instruction from my lbs guy, both the Shimano and Campy shifting made sense and was easy (though the Shimano levers hurt my hands).

What REALLY was hard was going downhill! It felt soooo scary being on a light bike, so close to the road, not having the 30 lb stability of my hybrid. I deserved the scare, though. Just Saturday I was out on a ride with 20 other women, and I got really mad at them because they kept coasting and riding to the left on a narrow downhill section. I'm awful at climbing, but as you'd expect, like a bat out of hell on downhills and I take full advantage of it. But all these other women were on road bikes, so now I get maybe it's just harder to get used to downhill speed on a road bike.

Also, I'm glad I'd read on this board about the toe overlap thing, because one of the bikes I tested had it, and it didn't freak me out because I anticipated it. My fitter is going to try to get my new bike without the toe overlap, but it may be unavoidable if I'm going to get the proper fit on the rest of the bike.