Good answer as always Christie! I am not too hung up on a few grams of frame weight and have found the ride characteristics of the Dogma to be exceptional. However having owned a good few top end bikes myself, I have to agree that it is not about the bike.
Check out www.wannabteam.com . The local Somerset West cycling club catering for both Road and Mtb, numerous rides every week for different speed/skill/fitness levels.
It shows the trail with two (I think) of your chosen data items, however you can easily toggle to your normal screens with the buttons on the left hand side of the device.
You don't need the maps, IMO navigation in a race is better without a map. The edge 500 & 510 provides a breadcrumb trail to follow the course that works really well.
Edge 500 worked perfectly. You need to load the routes using Garmin Connect as opposed to directly on to the device, but it was very easy to do and as mentioned above there were people at registration to help.
It really wasnt an issue provided you had the courses loaded up beforehand to your GPS. I rode with a Garmin Edge 500 and it beeped the few times I went off course and it was pretty easy to get back on course. On some of the stages where there were a lot of turns and non obvious routes, there were still route arrows to mark the way. It certainly does not detract from the experience and I wouldn't let it put you off.
