Boardman road bike anyone?

The most telling observation was on the handling coming back down, one rider expressed amazement that riders used to race down long descents with bikes that were so hard to handle and had very ineffective brakes.

This. I've got a new(er) Carbon Colnago as well as an old steel one.

The carbon is more comfortable, stiffer and descends like it's on rails. The old one is pretty scary at sustained high speeds, even though it has a modern groupset and wheels on. Lots of flex, lots of weave.

Still love the old one, but newer is SO much better.