huh... I don't know how fast CF outputs, but take a look:

1 gig Lexar 40x Card full of images. These are real numbers, I have both usb2 and 1 on different machines.

USB 1: 21+/- minutes
USB 2: 4+/- minutes

When you're out in the field downloading to a laptop... trust me, 21 minutes is SOOOOOOOOOOOO long.