Originally Posted by
RideMyWheel
A little over a week ago I started a similar thread after getting my A$$ smoked by a bunch of old dudes and women in a peloton. (yeah, I said it again, you hyper-sensitive, politically correct sissy biker boys...)
My own experience in the past 10 days is that dropping 3 pounds of my own weight probably made as big a difference as buying lighter wheels would have for me. Increasing time in the drops was a big deal for my average speed, too. I was spending way too much time upright.
I've known golfers who attributed breaking 80 to a new set of irons, a driver, a putter. I've never known anyone who broke 100 because they got new hardware. That milestone is only achieved by hitting a few thousand balls correctly and developing good habits. Honestly, that's the equivalent to where I am in cycling right now--still trying to break 100. I'll just keep working on my motor for now.
You're a sensible man.
As for getting your ass smoked by women, last year we got a 14-year old girl in our club a dispensation to race in the adult Cat4 races because she had no local competition in her age group. In her first Cat4 outing she sat on my wheel all the way then outsprinted me in the finish. I got off and said "I'm now officially slower than a 14 year-old girl." Her father said "don't feel bad, she'll be 15 next month."