I'm a poor struggling uni student, so I've only yet raced in Australia. I mainly do club races and I'm planning a few open events for this year. Our club racing is pretty good though, because we've got over 120 people in our club with quite a few successes - 2 commonwealth champions, 4 junior world titles on the velodrome and a pro cyclist who is currently the captain of Giant Asia. A number of national and state champions too. Maybe I'll be successful at it one day too.

As for your riding to work, i think that is great if you can fit it in. It helps you to clock up the kms.