Eden, I agree with riding in drops around curves but expressed myself badly by not adding, don't ride in drops on curvy roads until you feel comfortable in the drops. Ditto for aerobars. Thanks for catching me on that.

The article that livetoride linked is great, although there is generally a consensus around here, because of a lot of the road surfaces, that riding on the top of the brakes without having your thumbs wrapped firmly around the handle bar is not a good idea as they can get bounced off of the brake hoods, but that may just be a regional quirk. Keeping the thumb wrapped around is usually the most natural and comfortable at least to my mind.

Lots of good info. Like I keep saying, TEMKE (team estrogen members know everything)

It's all a great big learning curve.