Originally Posted by
tomato coupe
"Lifting their own body weight" is a red herring -- all riders lift their own body weight while standing. Standing doesn't impose any additional "weight penalty" on heavier riders beyond the simple linear mass dependence.
No, it's not a red herring. Every pedal stroke, I'm lifting 60 more pounds than a guy who weighs 145. It takes more power to do that, and the ability to put out watts, while proportional to body mass is NOT a linear function, or if it is, has a slope <1.