Thank you for this excellent link!
Cool work from the author
175cm 60kg 280 ftp
we might not be light, but have massive legs. I think it all evens out. Sure, Iām not winning a 10 mile mountain top climb, but true climbers often have a hell of a time if thereās wind or poor conditions or high speeds, etc.
6ā5ā, 82-84kg, 5-5.3w/kg
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Being large a always a disadvantage when it comes to power to weight. When something is twice as big, itās four times as strong but eight times as heavy. Thatās why ants can lift so many times there bodyweight
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This topic is the story of my life 
Being 6ā1 and 90 kg + Iāve always felt like on the receiving end when it came to racing vs small guys. Most of the guys I race with are like 20-30 kg lighter than me and just sprint by me on climbs. Itās so frustrating.
But then I started developing fairly big power by comparison to them and the differences started to blur. Yeah on climbs it will still hurt and I will be off the back but on the flats I will be able to more or less regain my losses.
Iāve also consciously started searching out for flatter road races and crits especially to minimize the disadvantage in w/kg vs raw watts.
As a side note, if you want to be a dick and hurt small guys simply do a 2-3minute pull of the front when on the flats at like 350watts + with them behind you, after a minute you will hear grueling, spitting and cursing behind you. Done it a few times in my local group rides, such a chuckle 
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Complaining about how youāre too big or too small is just too easy. Youāve got to me more specific than that. Referencing W/kg at FTP is looking at one data point on a curve (and I would argue that FTP isnāt a useful point to look at for riding and racing, but thatās another topic entirely). So letās look at things in terms of long or short W/kg. Iām not going to assign specific time values to ālongā and āshortā because it doesnāt matter. Live in an area with long, sustained climbs? Long W/kg is going to be helpful. If you live somewhere with lots of rollers or short, punchy climbs, short W/kg is your friend. Sometimes the two track together (a rider with good long W/kg is probably also going to have a decent short W/kg) but not necessarily, and certainly not the other way around. Which is really just to say you can be a big rider with a ālowā W/kg at threshold (which seems to be the only number people care about for some reason) and still absolutely murder small riders on rollers. Actually, as a (very) small rider, I dread hitting rollers in a group with a bunch of big guys. Itās usually going to hurt me a lot more than them. On flat ground, straight wattage is king. Even when it comes to sitting in the group, being small doesnāt make a very big difference in total power expenditure, and a smaller rider will have to be operating at a higher relative output than a bigger rider while drafting on flat ground. Crosswinds this is even more pronounced. Tailwinds this is the most pronounced. As @tomski86 said, if you want to hurt the small guys wait until itās anything but a headwind and go hammer at the front.
Hereās a quick approximation of why it isnāt so detrimental to be a bigger rider. Iām going to base things solely on height, and assume youāre on a flat road. At a given speed, aerodynamic drag increases proportionally with frontal area. Letās assume frontal area is your surface area, which increases on the order of the square (second power) of your height. (note: itās not that extreme. But itās on that general curve) Your raw power output increases proportionally with muscle mass, which is somewhat relative to your volume, which is on the order of the cube of your height (same disclaimer, this is super hand-wavy). Which is to say a bigger rider has more drag. But they also have more power to overcome that drag, and that increases faster than the drag. Bigger is faster on the flats.
Since Iām just rambling now and no oneās read this far anyway, letās keep on rolling. Think of how many different scenarios play out in a ride or a race. Itās a lot. Now think of for how many of those your size as a rider is what puts you at a disadvantage. Itās probably not that many. For big riders, itās sustained climbs. For small riders, itās winds, high speeds, and rough surfaces. It sucks to be on either end of the size bell curve, but since itās unlikely that anyone can move from the fringes to the center we have to work with what we have. Take step back, figure out what the problem actually is, and then work the problem.
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The answer to most questions on this and the Racing forums.
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Average genetics.
We all see those guys who do little training and are suddenly flying, those are the outliers.
Iām 191cm tall, 90kgs at the moment (used to be anything between 78-82kgs in my early twenties, now 30).
Even though, having relatively high power output as my ftp used to be around 380w, had a few years break from cycling, now around 370w (best recorded 20mins now sits at 402w in TT position), I was still getting destroyed on climbs by lighter riders.
I could do a one off, especially if it involved a tailwind, but repeated, long climbs are my nightmare.
Iāve also noticed, i cannot produce the same power going uphill even compared to a TT position. Anything above 8-10% makes my power drop significantly.
Not sure what are the reasons behind this?
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Is your cadence or body position changing significantly in those situations?
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At the risk of sounding insensitive, you sound like an absolute monster. Sure, us little guys might hurt you on climbs, especially steep stuff, but do a 10min threshold pull on flat terrain or rollers and Iām sure there is carnage in your wake.
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Position - I would say it does change a bit but not much.
Cadence is usually within 80-100, avg 85-90.
I have a pretty aggressive position and it is working well everywhere but on climbs (bike fit is not a concern).
Could this be down to a weak core?
As much climbing is also eventually associated with a back pain.
Haha, I must admit I used to feel very strong when I was around 80kgs.
Iām trying to get back to that feeling but at the moment I still got many weaknesses and I do get punished by fast, light riders on group rides.
Sounds like position is not an issue.
With steeper climbing at 8-10%, for any sustained period, you are fighting gravity more than lighter riders. There is far less inertia with your mass at climbing speed vs on flat speed. I asked about cadence in a light of wondering about any potential difference between your typical flat ride cadence, vs climbing cadence.
If you are faster spinning on flats vs slower spinning on climbs (which is common), itās possible that your body is not as adept at handling that demand on your system, and leads to lower power output.
Theoretically, you should have plenty of āresistanceā to push against, so itās not likely that you are running out of that when climbing. So an inability to hit similar power as you do on flats seems to be related to your body and how it handles the different inertia of a steep climb.
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Iāve wondered about the intersection between muscle fiber type composition and āinertial environmentā. Like, would a person with more fast twitch fibers prefer a flat / fast / high inertia environment because the time window during which power is applied during the pedal stroke is small, requiring quick fibre activation and high (relative) force? Would a person with relatively more slow twitch fibers prefer climbs / low inertia environments because power is applied during a longer time window and force production could be lower? I havenāt seen research covering that, but it might be out there and I have missed it.
@KamilW - do you think gearing changes could be made to make climbing more like riding in the flats in terms of cadence / force application? I realize 8-10% is pretty steep and it might not be realistic, but perhaps gearing changes for less steep climbs would help you keep similar cadence / force production to what you are doing in the flats.
Another option might be to pre-tenderize the legs of the climbers before you even get to the climb. At your power a sweetspot pull on the front if its flat / rolling terrain might be a good way to fatigue the legs of smaller riders before you even get to the climb.
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Another thing to consider: Donāt underestimate the factor of cooling. Iām a similar FTP, but heavier, and I have the same problem, but only when its warmer out, or Iām overdressed. The amount of airflow you have on flats vs a climb is a huge difference. And riding at a higher power requires you to shed A LOT more heat than a smaller rider. As humans we are about 22-25% efficient so if you are delivering 370W to the pedals, you are producing 1100W in āwaste heatā, which is about 400W more than a 60kg rider at the same W/kg.
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I am one of those smaller riders and my power output ability goes way up on a climb. It is much easier for me to reach those power levels on a climb than it is on level ground.
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I definitely struggle on the flat compared to bigger riders. 60-62kg 250-270 FTP.
I run a cycling club and often lead group rides. Flat rides are tough for me. Smaller riders are at a very significant disadvantage on flat roads. Especially, on poor quality roads. Cobbles being a perfect example. The estimates are between .5 an 1 w/kg more power for the same speed. This obviously depends on a million factors.
There is also some research to say that one of the reasons smaller riders generally reach a higher w/kg, is actually to do with them consistently having to train at a higher w/kg in general.
On a 100km flatish route, the smaller rider is spending a majority of the time training harder than the larger riders, if riding together. Crazy. Itās something Iād never contemplated.
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w/CdA instead of w/kg for the flat. w/kg is easy to measure, so everyone quotes it. w/CdA is not so easy to measure, but you can back it out from things like mywindsock. I hear big guys boasting that w/kg doesnt matter on the flat, but if you cannot tuck down into the drops, your CdA as a big guy can hold you back. Also w/kg does matter still on the flat, as CdA is a function of kg, and rolling resistance also contributes.
Watching Pantani smash Ulrich on the flat in 1998 was good illustration of this. Or watching Tommy Voeckler riding away from the peloton.
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