i live and race in the washington dc area. its super competitive and crit heavy. Last year I went to phoenix arizona and found the racing to be a lot different. First of I was able to win a crit relatively easy out there. Its like they didnt under stand the concept of the race. The road race I did out there was an actual 64 mile out and back with real climbing instead of the typical 10 mile loop courses that go on in the east coast. I got crushed in the road race in AZ where over on the east coast I would generally be able to hang in even the hardest races because of the lack of serious climbing.

Ive also done some racer group rides while in chicago and found the total flatland thing to be much different than the rolling terrain in the dc area. It definitely changed the rythem of the riding.