Ok, someone over on the Shimano board jibbed about looking for a Shimano group and that acted like the straw that broke the camel's back

My current bike has Campy, Mirage, but Campy none the less and now I'm building up a new bike. The new bike is going to be a multipurpose tourer/cyclocross/long distance ride bike and I'm wondering a few things...

How well does Campy handle cyclocross conditions? I love Ergo shifters but I didn't see too many of them at the 'cross races I spectated, or Campy equiped bikes for that matter.

This bike won't see too much dirt and I usually give my bikes a through cleaning after any dirty stuff but what about long term effects?

Also, I'm a broke college student so prices might break the deal. I'm looking for a Centaur group minus hubset and headset. Who has the best prices? I hear great things about Total Cycling and WiseCycleBuys, but anyone else have good deals and good service on groups?

With the weakening dollar I realize there isn't going to be uber good deals but if the group will be as good to me as the bottom of the line Mirage has been, I'll cut out the beer for a few weeks/months :)

I think the reason why you don’t see Campy in cyclo-cross racing is more a matter of sponsorship than performance issues. Take a look at the 2000 and 2001 Paris – Roubaix. Nothing but mud and campy equipped bikes seemed to work fine. It didn’t seem to prevent them from winning.

Check out what Laflin has to say on campyonly about ergo n dirt. If it weren't for sponsorship there probably'd be few if any ShimanNo ever off-road >>>
http://www.campyonly.com/techtalk/techtalk6.html

Ok, someone over on the Shimano board jibbed about looking for a Shimano group and that acted like the straw that broke the camel's back

My current bike has Campy, Mirage, but Campy none the less and now I'm building up a new bike. The new bike is going to be a multipurpose tourer/cyclocross/long distance ride bike and I'm wondering a few things...

How well does Campy handle cyclocross conditions? I love Ergo shifters but I didn't see too many of them at the 'cross races I spectated, or Campy equiped bikes for that matter.

This bike won't see too much dirt and I usually give my bikes a through cleaning after any dirty stuff but what about long term effects?

Also, I'm a broke college student so prices might break the deal. I'm looking for a Centaur group minus hubset and headset. Who has the best prices? I hear great things about Total Cycling and WiseCycleBuys, but anyone else have good deals and good service on groups?

With the weakening dollar I realize there isn't going to be uber good deals but if the group will be as good to me as the bottom of the line Mirage has been, I'll cut out the beer for a few weeks/months :)

I can't comment on Campy off road, never tried it. However for pretty decent prices of Campagnolo stuff check out:

www.hammerpilot.com

www.glorycycles.com

I've orderd from both, been happy with their service.

I currently run Veloce on my Empella cross bike with no problems. Some racing but mostly dirt roads and single track. For the pros DeClerq won the WC using Campy 2 or 3 years ago and the Saey - Deschacht team currently runs Campy.

Another reason you don't see it much is all the prebuilt CC bikes are Shimano.

I am running Daytona 10 speed on my cross bike- no issues, but I am using a FSA cross crank and Paul's cross brakes.