And this, gentlemen is a fine example of the straw man argument. While people have been arguing that full suspension is faster in some conditions, Eric is now claiming that the argument is "full suspension is always faster." That is what we would call "the straw man" that he would then burn.

Incidentally, a vague reference to an unreferenced article does not qualify as "data." Data would be the fact that top racers (Schurter, Absalon, Kulhavy, Fumic...) swap between hardtail and full suspension depending on terrain. And this terrain dependence has a lot more to do with how rough the trail is than how many feet they climb per lap.