Originally Posted by
mattm
Fwiw around here they start the clock at say 40 mins, but then switch to 8-10 laps to go towards the end.
I think that way they can still have a 40 minute race no matter how fast/slow the pack actually is - they switch to laps whenver the time is right (assuming a given average speed for the race I would assume).
Never by distance around here (for crits).
what you're describing is a different implementation of what has already been discussed in this thread. I haven't seen a crit with a big clock, though