Every little bit mentioned in the article helps to decrease your time. I think for the more serious racer who's looking to shave time wherever they can, this would be beneficial for them. So a pinch flat is worth the risk to get that extra 1- 2 seconds shaved, I would think.
I tend to go by what these guys say- they are professional, hard core roadies with ties to professional racers (ie- Hamilton, Armstrong), and know educators in the field (ie- Carmichael, Burke- RIP), they run camps, and they know their stuff. If you can wear the skinsuit to shave off a few seconds, and take some of the advice in the article to shave an extra few seconds here and there, pretty soon, you've gotten a nice amount of seconds you can work with towards an advantage for winning that race.
No doubt about it at all. Here's something that is an eye-opener - based on constant power output over a 40k TT (ie you would avg 30mph normally) these are the time savings;
1. Drop Bars >> Riding integrated Aerobars - 4 Minutes
2. Shorts/Jersey >> Skin Suit - 2 Minutes
3. "Box Style" 32 spoke wheels >> Aero Wheels (deep front, disc rear) - 2 Minutes
5. Round Tube Frame >> Aero Frame/Fork - 1 Minute
4. Standard Road Helmet >> Aero Helmet (Louis Garneau) - 30 seconds
6. Adding Shoe Covers - 10 Seconds
That adds up to a nice 9:40 savings over 25 miles. Seconds and minutes add up for sure.
As to the water-bottles, here's something from John Cobb (USPS aero-guru, generally nice guy and tri-geek) -
http://www.analyticcycling.com/RiderAeroStudy.html
basically it concludes;
Keep the jersey zipper zipped.
Ride on the drops.
Keep your drink bottles on the frame.
Carrying a drink bottle is better than not.
Wear an Aeropak under the jersey but better yet, keep the bottles on the frame.
Placement of aerobars is highly dependent on the rider.
Cobb also has a good website at
http://www.bicyclesports.com it combines his retail stores with a lot of his expertise on fit/aero stuff (in the tech areas) and a small forum in which he is fairly active participant.
But then again.... if no one in the group takes you seriously because you look dumb, that could work against you as well.
I see more of an advantage to that. If everybody thinks you are a newbie who doesn't know what's going on they are more likely to underestimate your abilities, etc. Could be quite the advantage.
And like you said, who cares what you look like out there, it's not like you are out there riding in jean shorts, a tank top and sandals. Go for it!
Andrew