Originally Posted by
merlinextraligh
When I race crits, I typically do a lap after the race, and maybe a little more off the course as a cool down. That seems pretty typical in my observation.
Okay, sure. I see people doing that. But does an extra 2-3 minutes (or .5 - 1 mile) of riiding really constitute a proper cool down as you were describing? I mean, that's no more of a cool down than riding back to the car and then walking back to the podium.
At that point it seems more an exercise in continuing on around the course to get back to the start line rather than braking from 35 mph to 0 and possibly getting hit from behind.
I think the entire notion of a cool down as prescribed by the majority of people is an archaic holdover from gym class in which you also did static stretches to "warm up". Old school stuff that has no practical performance application at all.
Now if these guys doing a lap of the crit course afterwards are then hopping on a trainer for 15-20 minutes a la Team Sky or something, then that might be something else.