Hi Mike
I purchased a Giottos 85 series CF which I thought was an excellent CF tripod and I was very pleased with its weight, set up and performance characteristics, until I acquired a Gitzo in a sale.
Even though the Giottos was an excellent performer, the Gitzo was even better in smoothness of operation and those intangibles such as overall feel, pleasure to use and it just kind of disappears when you use it; that is, it performs perfectly as expected so when you are using it, you are not aware of any limitations or foibles and you can just concentrate on shooting.
I have the GT-2531 Mountaineer and I only wished that I had purchased it earlier, it would have saved me money in the long run.
Cheers
Dennis