Originally Posted by pacemaker
Terry, so basically your saying in your last post that the SP will only use 149 kcals (626kj) and FL will use 427 kcals (1796kj) to accomplish the same amount of work. Impossible! Besides you have converted watts to kj and you cannot do that. Watts =FxD/time, kj is simply FxD. It does cost energy to move through air but since both riders are moving through the same air over the same distance the energy cost is the same; the difference is that FL rides in one hour and SP in two. FL will encounter more wind resistance because he is going faster but that will be offset by the fact that he will be riding for a shorter time. In the end both riders cover 30 mile at the same kcal cost whether it is done in one hour or ten. Kreuzotter is wrong, Isaac Newton is right.
I did not check his math, but riding faster would require more work. The increase in wind resistance would not be completely overcome by the shorter time spent riding because wind resistance increases exponentially with speed, while time is linear.