I'm not a competitive rider, but i ride for passion, absolutely love it, the competetive aspect pushed my love of sailing a bit much, the enjoyment of popping out for a quick sail went, determined not to do that with bikes! A few good buddies do the sportives and endurance racing, there nutters! 
If your on Facebook jim have a look for Shed Cycle Service Cornwall, most the work pops up there, wide variety of bikes, will be 4th year January officially for the shed, shops and mates rates before hand!
I had a go on a pedal assist cargo bike in Plymouth a while back when up on a course, Very bizarre, more so that the front wheel was 6ft up the bike from the bars! Could certainly see the prospective usage for them in cities! Cargo couriers etc.
The torque is really rather good though in the 15-40mph range for the size of car, at 185Nm. I reckon if I stomp on the pedal between 15-40 it gets up and goes quicker than my Xantia V6 for the first 2-3 seconds - unless the Xantia is already in a really low gear revving over 4000 ready to go.
At least up to about 30mph.
Seems a very incongruous choice for a man of the cloth...
