Maybe it's a mental thing? Crits being on totally closed circuits, just feel intrinsically a bit safer? Not to mention no worry about crossing the center line. I mention these things because struggling more with corners in road races than in crits is sort of an unusual problem. Could it be a acceleration by gravity thing as well? I'm better than your average Cat 3 in terms of raw cornering skill, but at 125 lbs, I can still end up gapped on a high-speed descent if I don't pay attention. But more corners reduce that problem for me, so that doesn't seem too relevant.