Something that hasn't been mentioned here is that some people are better at spinning high rpms than others. I was always a fast twitch spinner in sprints, both on the road as well as the track. I could crank it up to 200 rpm on rollers and over 140 rpm in sprints. I used a lower gear than many other racers, but still beat them because I could wind that gear much faster in a sprint. I remember one dude in particular who was the Illinois master's TT champion and finished second at nationals. I really had his number and he absolutely hated me. He would try to beat me in a gear that was at least 20 GI higher than I was using, and simply could not get on top of it as the speed increased, since wind resistance increases with square of the speed. No doubt he produced more torque than me, but power is proportional to the product of torque and rpm, and I was producing more power so I was faster. So it's like a small F1 engine turning 20000 rpm vs a big NASCAR V8 turning 8000 rpm, the F1 engine produces more horsepower even though it's much smaller.