Above 18mph, aero is everything. It's all marginal gains at that point.

Solo, "unassisted" KOMs are tough. Most of what you see are wind-assisted, pacelined, sometimes drafted "sniping" efforts. Sniping is where the method is to soft pedal to the segment, hammer their guts out for the length of the segment, then soft pedal the rest of the ride. When you see a ride with a 13mph average speed but segments at or near 30mph, you get the idea.

I was lucky enough to witness a guy taking some KOMs while riding immediately behind a Honda scooter. There are about half a dozen KOM snipers in my local area, not including the one who got killed year before last. Pedaled full blast, head down, into the side of a car that made a sudden left turn in front of him.

It's serious business, apparently.