Originally Posted by
clink83
Not true. With a 50/34 and an 11-25 cassette on rolling to flat courses you can stay in the big ring on longer/steeper climbs while still being able to retain your top end. If your honest with yourself and how you really ride, compacts are the best choice for 90% of people. There is more to compacts than just the low and high end gears. Also, 11-23 or 11-25 cassettes have much better ratios than something like a 12-27 cassette does, so you don't sacrifice your big ring ratios in order to climb.
Really, unless your a strong road racer on flat ground, there isn't a compelling reason to run a standard crank. Hell, I know someone who is a very good cat2 racer who races everything with a compact and an 11-23 setup.
The context of the thread is Bob Roll explaining why the riders in the Tour de France are not using compacts. My response in this thread was written in that context. There's no real advantage for those guys to use a compact because the climbs they are doing, they just don't need the lower gears.
So the riders that the thread is discussing are "strong road racers"