Originally Posted by
IthaDan
Placebo. Just like all that weight weenie BS. Think fast thoughts and be fast.
Serious answer: toe clips, more than anything, keep your foot on the "sweet spot" of the pedal. It wouldn't be called a sweet spot if there weren't performance gains.
If you haven't done so, check you cleat placement as well. Place you cleats at the ball of the cycling shoe, roughly in the same place where your clips held your sneaker. Make sure both left and right cleats are in the exact same place (fore/aft and left/right). Do a test run. Your pedal stroke should feel natural and pretty much exactly the same as it did with the sneakers and clips (except better

)