That's a great post and parallels my experience. I have over 900 workouts in the gym and on the bike in the last 6 years, all recorded on a heart rate monitor that lets me download the data to my computer. I quickly noticed that extended sets of heavy lifts produced HR peaks that look like interval training. Doing sets of 10-20 gives me huge HR peaks and the HR goes up (and down) faster than anything I've seen with any other exercise. As Carbonfiber says "This is a form of high intensity strength training, which I believe offers specific gains for cyclists". Bingo. I don't think you have to do sets of 30 (although I'll have to try that...), the key is to do sets that push you into HIT range.

Also, at age 58, I find that heavy lifting for part of the year is essential to prevent muscle mass loss. My only caution on this is STRETCH, or you'll get too tight. I had a year of IT band issues that I'm convinced came from tightening up from heavy squats. STRETCH.

Finally, if you want to learn to do the "big lifts", which I think are the most beneficial ones, you must, must, must get "Starting Strength" by Mark Rippetoe. For cyclists, I'd summarize this book as the Friel of weightlifting only more so. It's the best book on fitness that I've ever read.