My commute is just long enough to give me some headspace, where I came up with this techy little question:
Does time trialing draw power from a different muscle alignment than climbing?
Mastering the twin disciplines of cimbing and time trialing is the key to success in the grand tours. All of this is highly scientific compared to, say, building a Classics stud. I think of the great climbers as achieving a certain power-to-weight ratio in the climbing position, which is very upright, while the ITT guys are searching for the power sweet spot from the most aero position they can manage. Obviously success in one area doesn't translate much into success in the other, even though both are tests of brute strength meted out steadily over long intervals.
So what is it about the differences in one form of strength versus another? Are they in fact completely unrelated because one discipline develops the muscles in a way that's totally different from another? Do riders developing both disciplines have to build their legs twice?