Originally Posted by Psimet2001

I will resort to my standard reply about what's racing about/like.

If you want to know what your first race will be like - go have a buddy kick you as hard as he can in your junk. When you can see straight again - if you can contemplate having him do it again then you're ready to race.

The only thing that separates that experience form a real race is that it's only missing the sheer terror of riding within a few inches of sketchy riders as you head into a corner.

You will never push yourself hard enough to "prepare" for a race. Ride in a group first. Then ride in a fast group. It is simply impossible to simulate the intensity and spikes alone.

The difference between road racing/crits and something like running or a triathlon is something like this:

In a tri - they give everyone a medal and pat everyone on the back, "You FINISHED! How AWESOME! We're so proud of you!" - not unlike giving a trophy to the last place little league team because "they tried".

In a Crit - you get to deal with a registration person who is either in a foul mood or clueless. Pay an amount that when back-calculated as fun/minute is on par with illicit pursuits. Line up next to a bunch of 120# college kids and 400# master racers who are all stacked into a starting bunch like a herd of bulls who just smelled a cow. Accelerate like you were trying to launch a vehicle into orbit, go cross-eyed, see spots, go again, Faster??? really? ...and then pop. Come around and the official will give you what I like to call the "superweek salute" (a sweeping motion with the hand across the neck - the universal "you've been cut off" sign) and loudly call out yuor number as you go by - as though he's calling out the tag number of a bull that came off the herd and should be sent to slaughter.

....then you won't get placed and there will be no record of your poor performance, or that you even got out of bed that day.

...and allyou will be thinking is, "When's the next race?"

DFL>DNF>DNS