I've got the same thing. It's quite an aggressive resistance curve. I killed the bearings on the original resistance unit, and when it was replaced the main difference (apart from the substantial reduction in noise) was an immediate increase in resistance at any given speed (back to the levels of the original unit ~7 years earlier).
Unless I'm doing standing stuff, which I don't really bother with any more, I only ever use my 39t with the Cycleops. Even for VO2Max type intervals, I'd still only be in 39/15-13 for a functional range of cadences. I collected a bit of data from a few people, and the general picture is this:
Cheers buddy. It feels awfully hard. I guess I need to keep at it and I'll get used to it. I hope