I want to ride faster

[Cassandra_Cain]

In the flats, by far and away, the biggest limitation is aerodynamics. Whereas on a climb, more so the steeper it gets, power to weight is the biggest limiter while aerodynamics becomes rather secondary.

I could for example, put a 25 pound plate in my backpack, and to ride at 20mph would only need to produce about 4 more watts than I do at my present weight.

Meanwhile, if I tried the same stunt on a 5% grade, to ride at 10mph, I'd need to make 25 more watts.

You can see this in practice because drafting on a climb saves you much, much less than in the flats, where you can ride with much stronger riders just by sitting in and staying out of the wind.

I think average speed in the flats is a rather vague number to use as a measure of fitness. On a climb, that you do regularly, then it can be really useful since aerodynamics & wind have a lesser effect.

Using calculators for climbs has an important limitation - when you plug in the numbers, % grade, etc - the assumption is that the climb is steady, and I've yet to see a climb of any significant length that fits such a description.

Where I do a climb locally that averages about 6% for 10+ miles, segments range from a short downhill to over 10%. So in reality, my power numbers are higher than what the calculator predicts because of the variation in terrain.

There are many, many ways of getting faster. Veronica mentioned what worked for her. My preferred method consists of 10-40 minute intervals at TT (1-hour) pace several times per week.