My first road bike had a triple and I did three double centuries on it. There's nothing wrong with a triple. My second road bike has a compact double, but it was more of a custom build and I got gearing very comparable to my triple. I was trying to make it as light as possible and that's why I went with the compact double. My third bike I got for racing tris and it had a standard compact double. It was fine on a single fairly short climb, like Diablo to the Junction. And it was fine on the very hilly Half Ironman I did last year, because the hills were more rolling. But whenever I did anything longer, like Tam or multiple sustained climbs, my legs would just get fried.

The bike has SRAM Force and we traded out the rear for SRAM Apex so I could have a 34 back there. There are some big jumps in gearing, but my knees are so much happier with it.

Look at a gear ratio calculator to determine what your lowest gearing is now and then decide for yourself just how much you can go up. Everybody is going to be different. My legs are super strong, but the joints can't handle the added work for sustained periods.

Have fun shopping!

Veronica