of course, there are several factors to consider with air temperature.

There's the difference in air density that will have some effect. There will also be the impact of humidity. higher the humidity, the less your sweat evaporates and you stay hotter, for the same temperature.

the big thing I notice on warm/hot days is the energy I lose saying "FK it's hot today. FK I hate the heat. FK it's miserable today. FK, I still have to run in this crap.....". I find that I simply can't push myself in the heat, and even if I do grit my teeth and man up.

Given your increased wattage output, you probably do better in the heat (less swearing at least) than I do. Your difference will be due to other factors.

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TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"

It's interesting that no one has mentioned Density Altitude, it seems like it could be handy for aerodynamics. I come from a long range precision rifle background, it's used extensively in ballistics. I believe it's used in aviation too.

Essentially, it's a way for you to use the pressure, temperature and humidity to come up with an air density value. This would allow you to easily compare the density values from ride to ride.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXzbrGXI5Dw

In general, we use air density rather than density altitude because the units are better suited to doing calculations with power. In aviation you don't really care so much about the power and usually think in terms of the "equivalent" altitude above sea level.

I feel a difference riding in warm air vs cold. Warm being noticeable faster. Anyone who is a reasonably dialed-in athlete that spends time on a bike, knows his/her riding, would have no trouble sensing this imo.

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Training Tweets: https://twitter.com/Jagersport_com
FM Sports: http://fluidmotionsports.com

The speed difference for a 1200W/m^2 rider between air temperature of 5C (41F) and 25C 77F) (ceteris paribus) is a little under 1km/h (2.3%).

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http://www.cyclecoach.com
http://www.aerocoach.com.au

Yeah, it doesn't take much banking to make a track a lot nicer to ride. Hence why we have a lot of these country oval tracks, there's no need for them to be perfectly shaped which means they are relatively cheap to build - and as we know the racing is just as good.

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http://www.cyclecoach.com
http://www.aerocoach.com.au

Thats right. It's why I'm amazed everyone is looking straight for a complex answer...