Originally Posted by Brian Ratliff

My unofficial first two races ever were at Seward Park in Seattle. My first time out I got dropped and watched someone get a wheel swept in the sprint. My second time out, there was a crash on the hill leading up to the finish that took me off the back... I got back into the field after being lapped (I know, bad me, but in all fairness, I didn't know any better at the time) and promptly got pinched into a curb and knocked head over tail into the grass. So even in "practice races" there are your ordinary set of racing risks and people still race to win.