Originally Posted by
StefanG
I don't think i've ever raced a crit (a grand total of about 5 of them), where my IF was below 1.0. CAT 4/5 crits are only 30 - 40 minutes, so staying above 1.0 is very doable. Obviously, in a road race of 2+ hours, staying above 1.0 would be difficult, and if you could, then your FTP is likely off. Am I off here?
My average power in a crit is much lower than at a steady state max effort. Last night I had multiple steady state max efforts trying to bridge. This past weekend the course had a bunch of little rollers that kept me coasting probably 30% of the course. My average power was low but my VI was pretty high, but my NP still wasn't through the roof.
In any case I was pretty spent going into the crit from a prior hard TNR and a TT that AM, and saving a bit for the RR the next day. I wasn't exactly on a peak. But I would say for me it would be hard to hit 1.0 in a crit given the amount of soft pedaling and coasting. I try to manage the races so I don't have to make massive jumps if I can help it.