Originally Posted by
redlude97
he's also putting out way more watts/kg than you too though. On a perfectly flat course overall power is important but with any rollers and especially if you look at power on those hills that might play a significant role as well.
Generally, a good point. On this course, though, we just had five sharp, steep rises each of less than 250 feet in length (on our way to and from the main route). The remainder of the course was a very flat out-and-back. Unless you consider a 1% rise and fall to be a roller, we didn't have any rollers. For that reason, we felt the weight difference was pretty irrelevant. Not COMPLETELY irrelevant, but not a huge factor.
Wind direction was huge, though. I kept the two professionals within probably 1/4 mile as we rode outbound (downwind). But when we turned into the wind, they left me in the dust.