Crit racing FTP means next to nothing. It’s the ability to put in big sprints out of all the corners many times, ie the ability to repeat those anaerobic efforts.
But the one of the main reason people are dropped in crits is bike handling skills. No amount of intervals indoors can make up for those skills.
I’d also wager that if it were windy it was the crosswind sections that caught you out.
Absolutely. Looking at my past crits, using TR’s great new interval search feature, I spend around 30s each lap at >120%. It’s absolutely about the ability to repeatedly recover from anaerobic efforts. Then you have the muster the strength/willpower for an eye-balls out sprint for 10-20sec.
The times I’ve been dropped have been off the back of a massive effort, where I can’t recover quick enough to be able to get back up to speed to stay with the group. Simply poor racecraft.
For those considering Odd Down just give it a go, it’s a great course. I raced in the Cat 4 this weekend in the howling wind and rain. Came in 6th. I’m 327W at 77kg
I did my first Odd Down Crit in summer which was the first Cat 3/4 of the summer series. the pace was blistering and a real eye opener. I was in 6th/50 after 15mins and though ‘I got this’, but after pulling over 1,000W each time out of the two hairpins I was dropped after 26mins. Each race after that was just to learn a bit more and to beat the previous time in the pack. By the end of the summer I managed a 12th in a 3/4 race and 6th in a 4’s race.
Race format is 35mins + 3 laps. Time this weekend came in at 41mins including the neutral lap. The first 30mins were pretty pedestrian. I had a couple of pops off the front but I couldn’t get anyone to come with me. Then a guy from Bath Uni came hammering through, put 50m on the pack and we never saw him again! At that point the hammer dropped in chase but the guy soloed out the last 5 laps. Fair play!
My NP over the last 10mins/5laps was 309. Not massive, but big power out of the wet/windy hairpins. I put 700W down for the 30s sprint to the line and achieved 35kph into a brutal headwind. Most of that was in the saddle as there was no point standing at that point.
My 1min power is ok, but my 3-5min power needs work. Similar to @paulgrav, of the 41mins racing I spent over 8mins above 400W/120%FTP
I was a cat2 (in the UK last year) The year I got my Cat 2 license my FTP was low 3’s per kilo. However I regularly had power peaks of 1500 watts in the final sprints of races…generally finished top ten, couple of podiums
I can’t stress enough how much it’s about
Moving in to cat 2 was a different story, I got my head kicked in 
By the way, I can’t recall ever looking at my power during a race once !
Im at 4.2 watts per kg and struggled in sport class xc mtb races this year due to my ability to go anaerobic and recover. I was still top 10 but not where i wanted to be and where i thought my ftp would get me.
Seems FTP dosnt tell the entire story… ( for me anyway )
Was a hard pill for me to swallow
It’s the same for everybody. What you do with your FTP is as important as your FTP (to a point admittedly). Also, race your strengths and train your limiters. You have to know what they are and is why it would be nice if TR developed something similar to power profile strength/limit chart of TP/wko+. I think it would help many new to training and racing with power.
Yeah, once you get to this level, you have to know what you’re about or you’re in a world of trouble. The step up from 3 to 2 is brutal in my opinion.
I did my first race there this year at 4w/kg and i didn’t finish last.
My ability to suffer lap after lap was good, but my snap out of the hairpins really wasn’t good.
I came out of it knowing:
*i wasn’t at all competitive, but it turns out FTP can only get you so far 
Not sure if this’ll work… here’s my race on TR Log In to TrainerRoad
The ride is private. Can’t see it I’m afraid.
My account is public now if you want to see how much i suffered
Over 17% anaerobic!!! No wonder you suffered!!!
Interesting to see your IF hit .84 whilst mine is always near 1. For comparison Log In to TrainerRoad
Indeed, although I think a hell of a lot is to do with tactics.
I won a 4th CAT Crit this year on at the time I was about 3.8w/kg (315FTP).
Annoyingly my power meter was broken on the day on won, but I started the race by attacking, I then spent the first 15 mins of the race left hanging off the front on my own. I would say I spent the first 15 mins at about threshold. When I got caught by the pack, my HR pretty much stayed in Zone2 until the final 5 mins of the race, so while lots of people probably assumed i was toast, I got a pretty good recovery.
I then attacked again with a couple of laps to go, and solo’d to win. However, as many people have said FTP doesn’t tell the whole story. As I said I didn’t have power from this race, but my best 5 min power this year was 450, while my Highest FTP was 330w. I won this race because I can go really hard for 5 mins, if you took the attack away from the beginning the rest of the race I would have been in Zone2/3 not requiring a high FTP.
Don’t know if this helps at all but I like talking about my only win 
Here’s the ride from the only crit I did last year. You can see from the power file that there’s lost of big surges, most out of the hairpin. Several occasions I had to put out almost 1000W. As you can see, FTP almost irrelevant and average power doesn’t even tell half the story of how hard it was!!!
That hairpin was particularly difficult thanks to the slight incline up Union street to the line.