Originally Posted by
B. Carfree
Pro riders put out more power per mass than tourists, but not necessarily more power. They still manage to have many bike failures over the course of a grand tour, which is fine when you have a team car with replacements.
Agree. As others have mentioned: for a professional racer frames are a consumable, just like brake pads. The entire bike can be made incredibly light, because it really only has to last for 6-8 hours (e.g. one day's racing). Granted, the team doesn't want to have to haul around hundreds of bikes or build-up dozens of new frames each night but they're prepared to make durability sacrifices that a bicycle tourist probably wouldn't be happy making.