My wife is a studette
 

she applied to ride the Death Ride with her friends. She also got a new bike to try it out.

Good for your wife.

I saw plenty of ladies doing the Death ride last year. Many of them, especially the tiny, lightweight ones did very well.

There were also some "hefty" ones that we continued to pass for several hours into the ride. I started at the mass start at 5:30am and could not figure how in the world I was continuing to pass some of these people so far into the ride. Chatting with people along the way I learned that many people, having attempted to finish unsuccessfully in the past due to cut-off times, started the ride much earlier than the official start time. Some left as early as 3:00am in order to make the final cut-off and finish by about 8:00 pm.

There were even several kids, probably under 14 or 15 years old that finished all 5 passes.

well I rewarded her with a new Litespeed Ghisalo (sp?), it goes about 14 pounds.

Can you educate me about compacts? Is that a fancy term pros use for triples? What's the story?

Isn't a compact a frame style that puts you into more of a forward racing position?

Creekster or Mike W would likely give you a better answer than what I have.

The short answer is no. A triple is a triple. It has obviously a huge range of gears to choose from, with a lot of overlap between the different chainrings.

A compact chainring is a double, designed to allow a greater range of gears than a "standard" double. The small ring is small enough for most climbing grades, whereas the the big ring is big enough for top end speeds.

There is very little overlap in gears between the two rings that you get with a triple. It is also supposedly more lightweight than a triple, which is appealling to most weight-weanies.

I go with a triple due to the hilly/mountainous terrain where I live. Its comforting knowing I have enough gears on my triple to climb small trees if need be.

There is probably much more to it than that. Will someone please correct me if I'm way off on this one.

Does Shimano make a compact?

It sounds like a great option.

For example, it would be nice to have 11/27 combination, but now many pros seem to lean toward the compact.

Just so that I know I'm not crazy, isn't there a frame style referred to as compact as well? I'm thinking especially of Giant's bikes.

You are correct sir, there is a compact frame type made by Giant as you said. And I don't know if you are crazy or not. Talk to MW about that one.

but it's usually referred to as a compact frame. Yes Giant employs this device.

There is a dura ace compact chainring that is compatible with a dura ace rear cassette or an Ultegra 9 or 10 speed cassette.

And yes, it works very well with an 11/27 combo.