it's absolutely not the bike. lookup the mileage, elapsed time and average speed of prestigeous bicycle races. the dudes from before the advent of indexed shifting and wider deeper gearing still climbed pretty damn well. they TTed pretty respectably considering they had no power meter and no aero gear.

this becomes even more true if you look within the last 10-20 years, 1992 to present. cycling technology is pretty damn cool, and it sells bikes and components. but it's ALWAYS been the rider and always will be.