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@yoav
No, I think it would be possible to do a real world trial. Something along the lines of this:
Take a group of say, 20 cyclists and get them to do 2 time trials over a same course, say of 10 miles on identical bikes, half of which have Q rings and the other half conventional rings, but all the rings covered up so you can't tell which bike has which. Then randomise 10 cyclists to ride the conventional bike followed by the Q ring bike and 10 the other way round. Thus each cyclist acts their own control, blinded to which type of ring they are using, and by randomising the order, compensating for any changes in weather or rider fitness between the 2 runs.
Obviously, the only measurement which counts would be the time taken. You could have split times for any climbs so see if there is any benefit there. The possibilities are endless but a scientific approach is certainly possible.