Originally Posted by
RCMoeur
It's what we rode back then. I usually raced all road disciplines with a 13-21 and someone at a crit once looked at it and asked "where's the hill climb?" We just stood up for long stretches on steep hills, because that's how the faster racers did it. As I recall, it wasn't until later the biometric studies showed seated climbing was sufficiently more efficient to the point of making a difference in elite competition.
first thing I did when I got my first (real) road bike - 91 Cannondale - was to replace the 12-23 with a 12-28
in our area a 12-23 was basically useless
I’ve repeated this story a few times - so apology in advance if you are already tired of it
at the first Thrift Drug Classic pro road race in Pittsburgh - less than half finished ; they struggled with the climbing especially the Sycamore street climb
the subsequent TDC races reduced the number of times they had to ascend Sycamore - and the teams / racers were better prepared : many had 12-28 cassettes (including the Motorola team with Armstrong, Yates, etc)
the best riders in the world were using a 28
saw the Core States and Tour DuPont - but did not get an opportunity to check out tech … maybe too stunned after I walked past Fignon on rollers (think it was him - was a long time ago - or was I dreaming ?)