Originally Posted by darkmother

You guys are talking about mechanical work done, not nessasarily the energy consumed. Naturally this is relevant, but it doesn't tell the whole story. For example, push as hard as you can against a rigid wall. You will quickly tire. From the vantage point of your muscles, you are doing aerobic and anerobic work, but external to your body, no work is done. This is becuase in this instance, the efficiency is zero. Difficult to estimate the actual caloric expenditure of cycling, unless you can estimate, or better still, measure efficiency. Just something to consider. I will be interested to see what you decide to do.