Funny that no one has talked about how this translates into team duties/race stages... you're lead TT, take every edge, so no PT. My slow skinny ass sometimes rides one though (aero-shielded). I'm 5 back, baby-birded and chugging anyway- the training potential makes me more of an asset than a few less seconds do.
On the other hand, I am not putting a damn thing extra on my bike when hills are on the plate, as I have the unfortunate responsibilty of towing the climbs... and our TT specialist might be more of an asset if he's getting the maximum future benefits from the climbs with a PT rather than being negligibly quicker up the mountain.
For college, where specialty duties are a little more loosely orchestrated, and every race should be looked at as a learning experience anyway, I tend to agree with UT Dude... if you're not distracted by it, it's a good way to get realer numbers than training can afford...
I for one find a little "extra" on race day that isn't normally there during training sessions- it's the next step of that potential which must be trained for.