Originally Posted by brawlo

Not as clear cut as that, but kinda yes. What you should notice is that a revvy small gear may get you good peak speed, but it is short lived. When you play bigger you will notice that maybe your peak speed is lower but your average speed should definitely be higher for a 200+m effort. As you develop the strength, both top and average will get higher. Me personally, the first time I had the feeling of pushing a gear in an effort vs spinning and just trying to hang on was an epiphany!

As I said before it's not about riding 90" and then throwing on 135" and expecting to break records. You build up to it with targeted training, especially with on the bike strength work. These days "getting on top of the gear" and "spin to win" are only for the juniors that are on restricted gearing, or guys that just can't let the past go and see that times have changed.