Originally Posted by
Miles2go
Never heard back to see how the bike fit is, and from the photo, it looks too small, with a saddle possibly too low. A low saddle drops power, especially during seated climbing, by not including the glutes' major kick in the power stroke.
This line of reasoning only applies IF the power meter is reading way too high - which is possible, but probably not the most likely explanation - especially as his trainer also indicates the same power output. The OP is really asking why he's losing time while apparently producing more power than his mates (how he produces that power is kind of irrelevant). We need to know how much his mates actually weigh before moving on to other scenarios.