Thanks for your reply.
I have to admit that I've never before heard the term FTP and had to look it up. And after looking it up, I'm still confused. Correct me if I'm wrong, but FTP reflects a maximum steady effort, not short bursts. The definition I read included "not the up and down you might see looking at your power from a hilly ride or cyclocross. "
I could be way off here, but if I'm interpreting the definition correctly, I'm not sure how it applies to cyclocross. My understanding is that a cyclocross race requires maximum effort with very short periods of respite for one hour. I come from the CatEye generation where all you could see on your onboard were things like speed and distance ridden. Terms like WPK and FTP weren't even invented, never mind talked about. So I guess my question is: How can you determine maximum steady effort when the ride lasts only an hour? Wouldn't the term or calculation or whatever be best applied to to those who make a living riding five hours a day?
Dumb questions aside, the fact there are only two riders who have made a significant impact makes the spectacle even more curious. Two guys who made the seamless transition to the road after plying their trade in the mud. If the pros are lacking in endurance and bike handling skills, shouldn't that make more up and comers spend a couple years riding cyclocross? I'm assuming both are making boatloads of money, which could potentially open doors to greater resources that the pack fodder don't have. So there's that as well.
Also, just one last thing before putting everyone to sleep. This has been mentioned by someone else before, but it's curious that WVA peaks during the WC after consistent beat-downs by MVDP .
Thanks, lots of questions and I will do my best to keep it simple and to the point.
FTP
Functional Threshold Power is a (good) proxy for a riders aerobic conditioning and should correspond to the average power (W) a rider could produce in a maximum effort over one hour of riding. Just as you say the highest FTP is most likely produced as an evenly paced steady state effort and not - like in cyclocross - bursts of efforts paired with rest periods with low or no power. Yet, FTP seem to be a good marker for strong cycling performance as cycling is a predominantly aerobic sport (bar track cycling).
FTP and CX
Anaerobic and sprint/max power capacity clearly plays an important role in CX but typically races are one hour long with high demands on the riders aerobic capacity. Very likely the top 10 best CX riders in the world will have higher average FTP than the top 11-20 CX riders. Surely technique is a massive divider and to some extent max power and anaerobic capacity but take Tom Pidcock. Small rider with a very high FTP (British TT champion), that often starts "slow" in comparison to most of the other top riders but equally often ends up among top 3-5. Without knowing exactly my guess is that most of the elite CX riders have very high anaerobic capacity as well as exceptional power and power/weight and still the main dividers are 1) technique and 2) aerobic / FTP.
Roadies vs CXers
How can CXers make such a strong footprint in road racing, implying that they are coming from nowhere? Well, WVA and MVDP has raced bicycles all their lives - BMX, MTB, CX and road/TT. Secondly they are their generation's most talented riders. One can name several CXers that have gone from CX to road and become successful and some that did not. The main major differences between the two sports are probably 1) bike prowess (honed to the extreme in CX) and 2) anaerobic/short effort capacity and recovery. Surely a roadie can also attain these qualities without racing CX (Sagan, Gilbert, Greg v Avermat; Fuglsang, Valverde etc) but more and more pro road teams realize the benefits of CX and therefore looks into the ranks of CX riders and also makes room for that kind of training, racing.
Doping
All elite sport is under the shadow of doping and CX has had its share of confirmed cases - even e-doping with electric motor aided bikes. We can only hope that procedures work as intended and that CX is not particularly plagued compared to other cycling. With technique as significantly larger factor than compared to road doping will be somewhat less effective but still it must make massive difference to have a couple of % higher power / better recovery.
WVA and World Championship
Since 2015 MVDP and WVA have dominated the World Championships in CX. Wout took his second in Bieles Luxembourg 2017 through a very smart choice of tyre setup. Many of the other top riders punctured on the muddy and gravelly course and MVDP saw his chances evaporate with three puntures. In 2018 MVDP won almost everything leading up to the WC but probably overstretched and came into the race not completely at his best. Further, the course was perfect for Wout with lots of ups/down and extreme mud - something that does not seem to fit Mathieu. In 2019 MVDP beat Wout thoroughly on a fast, slick very technical course in Bogense, Denmark. Wout almost lost the silver medal against Toon Aerts but at a last critical moment Toon made a mistake and came third. Last year in Dubendorf Wout came in having suffered severe wounds in road racing and was not at his best - still ended up fourth. Thus the score between MVDP and WVA is 3-3 but it could easily have been 4-2. We shall see next weekend who comes out on top but it should be a major surprise if it's neither of those two.