Originally Posted by Racer Ex

Somewhere here there's a race report about doing Devil's Punchbowl in loafers. And doing Stage 1 at Gila with a missing cleat.

Sitting, not much difference at tempo. Standing and sprinting or climbing, big difference in efficiency. Which is why when you see these "scientific studies" you need to actually look at the protocol. Do we always ride a bike sitting riding at tempo? Obviously not. Did they see what happens on the outliers of the cadence spectrum? Nope. How about standing starts? Nope.

There are some obvious "real world" examples where pulling up on the pedal adds power. Think about the circumstances where people pull out of cleats...