Just some suburban streets around Atlanta. Neither paved with gold nor paved with caltrips.
I used to have constant problems with flats on a road bike I had 15 years ago. I have a new one this year and have had no issues with it. I think the technology has improved a great deal. Look for a liner between the rim and the inner-tube.
I got an aluminum/carbon frame this year and it has worked really well for me. It cost under a thousand bucks, so it’s not anywhere near TdF worthy, but it’s a pretty good ride. If I were to race someone on a cheap Wal-Mart type bike I’d kill them though. Those bikes are so heavy and have so many other negatives that it would really slow you down.
Again, you don’t know what you are talking about. While a crash can certainly take out any bike, normal training and racing will not hurt it at all. I raced my last bike, a Masi 3V with True Temper OX3 tubing (not near as tough as a 531 frame) for 10 years, put about 60,000 miles on it in that time, and had my share of crashes.
Your claim that “an elite racer’s bike is not meant to last for longer than at most a 3-week stage race” is just flat out wrong. As casdave pointed out, the bikes need to be able to take some abuse. Do you really think that anyone is going to descend on narrow mountain roads at 60 mph on a bike that isn’t meant to last for more than 3,000 miles?
Since I’m pointing out that you are wrong, I’ll have to include this:
So, a 20 ounce water bottle tops out at over 2 pounds, huh?
Sure, a pint’s a pound the world around.
so 16 oz = weighs 16 oz. Now if you fill the last 4 ozs with heavy water… 
Sure. Besides, this isn’t GQ, so I guess my last post was a bit out of line.
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- Anyway-- uh, , , -I really think that the lightness of the wheels/tires causes the bike to feel “lively”. Not necessarily to cause much improvement over the long run, as a heavier bike will (in theory) have more intertia and coast more. …But when you stand on a light upright bike and pedal, you get the feeling of the bike surging forward under you. This is a lot like the difference in feel you get with a MTB, when you first try riding it with 2-wide+heavy knobby tires, and then switch to narrower 1.3-inch slicks. So I’d bet it’s mostly a perception of the weight of the wheels and tires.
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- Anyway-- uh, , , -I really think that the lightness of the wheels/tires causes the bike to feel “lively”. Not necessarily to cause much improvement over the long run, as a heavier bike will (in theory) have more intertia and coast more. …But when you stand on a light upright bike and pedal, you get the feeling of the bike surging forward under you. This is a lot like the difference in feel you get with a MTB, when you first try riding it with 2-wide+heavy knobby tires, and then switch to narrower 1.3-inch slicks. So I’d bet it’s mostly a perception of the weight of the wheels and tires.
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I have to lose … ahem … SEVERAL racing bicycle’s worth of weight before the weight of the bike makes a bit of difference, so I get to keep riding the cheap bikes! And they said there were no upsides to being overweight.