1. Train for crits by simply riding as hard as you can for 30min at a time? That sounds more like time trial intervals. The effort duration and energy system in the body is a bit different. Ask Rubik about the crit stuff, he'd know best.
2. Ever heard of or watched Paris Roubaix? Probably so. The road "furniture" is apparently ridiculous at times. Now, this is memory from reading Gaimon's book about his one time at Roubaix, but I thought I remembered him describing folks having to hop curbs and ride between patio furniture in front of cafe's, trash cans, poorly placed spectators, oh........and obviously the less than ideal cobblestones. IMHO I would put a Paris Roubaix vet on par with a messenger "street racer" for bike skills in a mass chaos environment. Yes, Paris Roubaix isn't littered with cars doing silly stuff.......but the parallel drawn in terms of handling obstacles is probably pretty close for "roadie" stuff.
3. People actually DO run for 4 hours a day almost everyday. Eliud, the guy who broke 2 hours running a full marathon (running faster than 13mph for 2 hours) trains about 140 mpw. Run miles, most folks I know only bike that far per week. Not run. Most of those guys run volume at lower intensity. You do the math on 140 mpw with even just one off day.
Yeah, these guys can't swerve around neutral support cars, motos, wrecked riders, fans, perhaps farm animals..........