People who tell you that you "can't" ride a certain kind of bike for that kind of reason are just dumb (well, i want to use another word, but can't). I am sure that some think that I don't deserve my Kuota, being a 53 year old fitness rider. I will never be a racer, but, you know what, who cares? My LBS also deals with a lot of serious racers and roadies and they are always nice to me. Maybe it's because I spent good $ on the bike, but we don't really buy much else there because my husband does all of the mechanical stuff and we get most other stuff on line. Today i met a friend for lunch and locked my 10 year old Voodoo Hoodoo up in front of the shop. One of the employees, a younger woman, came out and was "oohing" over the way I had fixed up this bike. She then asked me if i had just had a birthday. I said no, but then I realized she remembered that someone had come in a bought a gift card for someone named Robyn, but he didn't know the last name (it was one of my colleague's husband). He was picking it up, as my students had collected money for this as a retirement gift. She figured out it was for me and put it under my account.
You've done the same amount of miles that I did all of last year and most people can't even fathom how someone could ride a bike 3,000 miles!