Originally Posted by fmw
I think the only advantage of tubulars is lighter wheels and lighter wheels can help in climbing - at least a little bit. I think "rolling resistance" is one of those angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin sort of things. Same with "rotational weight." They are measurable but not noticeable or important. These things make great ad copy but have little to do with performance on a bicycle.
It would be fun to do a blind test to see if anybody and I mean anybody can feel or notice the difference in "rolling resistance" between two 700X23C tires pumped to, say 110 psi.
Terry Morse makes sensible posts on this forum and I think his statements here are about as sensible as it gets.
I agree again, Terry is a very knowledgeable member who contribute a great deal to this forum. However have you ever seen the power profile from a 60min crit? It's 60min of doing threshold intervals. It's one acceleration after another, spinning up a heavier set of wheels is going to use more energy than a lighter one. Even if each of those accelerations only uses a small amount more than the lighter wheelset it will add up. I agree that on a long tempo type of ride the difference is most likely negligible.