Originally Posted by carpediemracing

25 mph in A groups and still getting drops on climbs can make sense - that's me in a nutshell. He mentioned drafting etc before and that he's reasonable at drafting. Going 25 or even 30 mph while drafting takes a lot less gas than climbing even a moderate hill at some normal effort (I'm relating it to me here).

So for me I can sit in at 27+ mph at 175w avg power (this was in the Cat 2 Tour of Somerville in 2011). 175w is the power I need to go about 18 or 20 mph by myself on a flat road. (In fact I got caught behind a crash at Somerville and averaged in the 270w range to go 22-25 mph solo for half a lap to the finish.)

To climb a 0.3 mile hill near my house (about 4-5% for 0.1 mi, another section that's 10-12% for 0.05 mi, and the other 0.15 mile varies between 0 and 5%) I need to average 190-200w to hold 13-14 mph, which is close to my (210-220w per hour) limit. The guys holding the Strava top times are doing in the 370-400w range to hold 20-21 mph, and those are the guys at the front of a race going 27 mph.

So if I want to follow those guys on the flats I can do 150-200w and stay with them easily. On a hill I need to put down in the 350-450w range (depending on their weight vs mine) and I'm shelled pretty quickly.