Fighting traffic, literally

Here's the summary of my commute home from MotionBased.com. If you're using that service, let me know and I'll deprivatize a few of my commutes so you can view them. I'm getting 30 km a day going to work and back and I hope that'll help if I decide to race this summer. I'm thinking about doing time trials and then cyclocross in the Autumn. Maybe I'll do a few criteriums too. Three posts ago I have a picture of my elevation profile for the ride home. The one day I rode my mountain bike, I posted a time of 40 minutes getting to work and 50 minutes getting home. Obviously, a road bike with slicks is much better on the road. I'm actually using my cyclocross bike at the moment but I've shaved 5 minutes going to work and 12 minutes coming home. I was a bit surprised that the difference in time to work and back on my 'cross bike was only three minutes because the difference in elevation is 100 m between work and home. It appears to be because on 4th St. there are some long, gradual climbs on my ride to work. They're barely climbs but while I'm going to work, there are long sections that I'm averaging 20-25 km/h but I come back home at about 40-45 km/h. I'm obviously not a climber so the two big climbs near my home really slow me down. I'm still carrying over 10 kg more that I would like. It seems odd that, for racing, I spent quite a bit of money for a nice, light, stiff bike yet I'm carrying a pile of extra weight on my body. For you skiers out there, it's like the difference between the Birkie and the Birkie Lite but I've got two packs on. Oh well, compared to two months ago, at least I've almost gotten rid of the third pack I was carrying.