Originally Posted by
howaboutme
In the context of the OP, do you calculate your climbing rate or are you, like most people, trying to get up the hill/climb as fast as possible w/o toppling over? If the latter, then I'd agree that it shouldn't really matter".
This sort of show a little naïvety on your part about pro cycling and races. They don't try to just get up the hill as fast as they can. They try to get up the hill as fast as they can while considering all the hills yet to come and the distance yet to be traveled and whether they have the energy to sprint at the finish line if that will be required.
Which in fact is much like I do too. And I definitely am not a pro cyclist.
Of course it shouldn't really matter whether a cyclist riding for just recreation rides that way or not. They should ride how they like to ride. But they also shouldn't make disparaging remarks about those of us that do like to push on our rides to see what we are able to do.