We stood on Côte de Barden Moor yesterday and watched the amateurs then the pros. There were three types of rider:
1 - Regular amateurs like me: it's still an achievement to be able to propel a bike up a 10% hill, only a tiny percentage of the population could do it but these people were grinding and breathing hard, obviously suffering. They had a variety of bikes with bits added on and a variety of body shapes. Quite a lot were in club kit, quite porky and making lots of noise.
2 - Fast amateur riders: usually in their 20s and very thin indeed, often fashionably unshaven, wearing a variety of unusual jerseys on a variety of unusual bikes, unencumbered by saddle bags, lights etc. They went up fast with their mouths shut, always out of the saddle, weaving through the slower riders.
3 - The pros: not horribly skinny but actually honed and well shaped in standard kit on standard bikes. Studiedly silent, mouths shut, in well-drilled groups, looking as if they weren't really suffering at all. What was most noticeable was the uniformity of their body shape, position and riding style. They flowed past silently and were gone.