[Closed] Average Speeds

From that Roadie vs MTB thread and some of the speeds quoted...

I ride a gravel bike, 35mm stock Giant semi slicks, the bike is a bit beefy for a road bike at 24lb ish and I ride with flats and MTB gear, no lycra on show by order of SWMBO. I'm not exactly a streamlined rider either - wrong side of a 25 BMI but not by much.

Using a 50T big chainring and 11-32 cassette. At full effort I'm getting 22mph or so on the flat, normal out of breath effort around 17mph. Pretty much every ride is coming out at 14mph average over 15 to 20 miles according to Garmin, I don't push things to the max all the way round a ride and don't autopause when I stop to take a [s]breather[/s] photo. I occasionally overtake other cyclists, but get overtaken just as much.

I can see that club riders on Strava local leaderboards getting 25 to 30mph averages and can see with their level of activity, fitness how that is possible.

If I look at my place on the leaderboards I'm pretty average, if I narrow down by age and weight then I'm a better than average. I'm pretty happy with that if I'm enjoying the rides.

What I'm wondering is how to get into that next step up from around 15mph average to 20mph average. I see lots of people claiming 20mph average as if it's simple and easy and everyone should be doing it, but it doesn't add up for what I see out and about which is either really fast club riders who ride a lot or average riders like me pootling around at roughly the same speed. If 20mph was easy shouldn't I see more people doing that?

Do I just keep pedaling until my legs can push a 50T chainring at a higher cadence to get the higher speed?

Do I have to find the time to ride more?

Does a carbon road bike, streamlined rider and skinny tyres at 100psi mean a shortcut to a lot more speed?

I've got half arsed personal target for average speed improvement over 20 miles by the end of this year, managed getting from a measly 10mph average after coming off statins back in Feb to the 14mph I'm getting now so pleased with that.

Just wondering if I'm aiming for the impossible and the average figures I'm seeing as being easy by the swoonmeisters online aren't real or are really the top speed or the average speed of their fastest segment and their whole ride was a lot slower.

Curious more than bothered!