I know what you mean - I was in a road race with some guys from Raleigh Banana, who were at best a 2nd tier pro team. I was hanging on at the back of the peloton chewing on my handle bars - there were 2 Raleigh guys riding next to me having a chat as if they were on a club run. They moved up when they needed to and one of them won easily in the end... I was dropped shortly after I saw them. Just for context - I was in a 3 up Time trial team who finished just 4 or so minutes behind the Raleigh Banana team in a 25 mile time trial later in the season, so we weren't bad, but the difference is huge.