The fancy name for cooling your muscles as you are doing with the cold bath is "cryotherapy" (from "cryo" meaning cold, not what you do when you first lower your body into ice water). There are several methods and reasons for cryotherapy and there is some accumulating evidence for some and against others, so when your buddies tell you that they read that ice-baths "don't work" be sure to ask them specifically what they don't work for.
This is an evolving field with no one best protocol determined yet, but here's what we think we know: Cryotherapy doesn't help with routine "recovery" or mid-event. Cooling muscles makes them weak until they warm up again, so you wouldn't to cool working muscles between closely spaced events. Cooling does help when over-heating is an issue, so cooling other parts of the body as a way to reduce overall body temperature on hot days can support performance. Cryotherapy generally doesn't help with next-day performance unless the prior day's workout was soreness generating, but does reduce next day soreness.
To be effective against soreness, your cooling period needs to be long enough for the cooling to reach the interiors of the muscles that would otherwise become sore. That means that if you are a big guy with massive muscles, you'll need to cool for longer than a small, spindly guy with string-bean muscles.
Having said that, 5-15 minutes is probably long enough for any given muscle. One way to achieve the same end without wasting water is to give you an ice-cube massage. Rub your calves and thighs post-ride with an ice-cube at a time, replacing them as they melt. Keep the pressure moderate, enough to make a depression in the skin, but not hard enough to hurt. I've had good results with 2 large ice-cubes per calf and 4 per quad plus hamstring.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/cyclingnews-fitness-q-and-a-february-16-2012
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