You could get on a Kestrel 4000 with a 105 build for around 2,800.00.
http://www.kestrelbicycles.com/...lon/4000-shimano-105
You must have misread the thread title. It says “best tri bike for under 3k” not “biggest piece of crap, waste of money, aerodynamic dog of a TT bicycle for ~$3k”
Funny, I rode a 2:34 (top 70 overall that day) bike at Lake Stevens 70.3 in 2013 on a Kestel Talon with SRAM Force. At that price point, I’m going to go out on a limb and say it isn’t the bike that is going to make you fast.
PV’s trolling aside, just because you can ride fast on poor equipment doesn’t make the equipment good (or irrelevant). It’s just the reality that you’ve got a good motor. The Talon is a pretty dated frame, and you’d have been a couple minutes faster on a different frame.
To the OP, for new bikes get a P2 or Shiv and spend the remaining grand on some good race wheels.
I rode a 2:35 on a speed concept 9 (same enve wheels) the following yet with slightly worse pavement. They chipsealed a big portion of it. Unless you are at the pointy end of racing and have your fit/cda very dialed in you aren’t going to get dramatically faster simply because of a more aero bike.