here is how I improved

Every day when I start my ride, as I am doing my warm up, I put in 3 1 minute intervals of high rpm work. I started at 100 and did that until I could do the 100 and feel more or less normal...now I am at 120 and its almost normal. I was in a class one day on crits, and they were doing an exercise on break aways / sprints, and I actually hit 140 during the sprint...I was shocked when I looked at my data after the ride.

It does get easier, but you have to work at it. On my long rides my averages have gone up from low 70's to high 80's now.