Originally Posted by
Banzai
Winds are NOT like hills.
For starters, the harder you push, the harder the wind pushes back.
Secondly, light hill-climbers are at an even greater disadvantage against the wind; your reduced mass is pushed around more, and while your power-to-weight may be really great, pure power might be relatively low. On a flat road in a headwind, this equals serious pain.
I know about this. At 138lbs but with a pretty decent power-to-weight, I usually kill my riding buddies on hills. But I remember when I moved to TX I just could not hang with some of those TX power-riders on flat roads on windy days.
Even now in Kansas, the guys I ride with/against usually find a way to peel me off on a flat road with a headwind, so they won't have to fight me up hill. (Yes, there are some climbs in NE Kansas. My normal route is 26miles with almost 2k of climbing, most of that on about 2 fairly steep climbs.)
I agree. As a big legged somewhat generously portioned person, I love the flats. Even without particularly strong wind, I seem to drop the light hill climbers without even trying. I rode with some good climbers back in the UK and on the flats coming up to the start of hills, I sometimes looked back and found they weren't there.
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