Well coming into this season having never done a bike race in my life, i now have six 'cross races under my belt. I had never known what it meant to pedal in anger or really push myself physically until now. My bike experience before this was a few years of recreational mountain biking (although that was almost two years ago) and the occasional work commute. So i've been eating heaping helpings of humble pie to say the least.

If you read nothing else, read this: DO IT!

My fitness and power is crap compared to most people, but here's what i do to keep in the game

1: Warm up. this is super critical. Racing cold or even cool is horrible. It makes you simply want to die. I found i need a good 20minutes on the trainer. If you don't have a trainer either ride a street nearby or even jog/run. Anything. The past two races i arrived a bit late and only had about 20 minutes before the race. I chose to spin on the trainer instead of preriding the course and i think this was smart. Ideally, i would ride the course a lap or two early, take a rest, then warm up on the trainer, but since i'm near the back of the pack and am good at looking ahead, i'd much rather be warmed up and just deal with the course as it comes than preride and be cold.

2: Stage and Start. Stage up front, don't be scared, if its open staging push your way up. If they stage on numbers (prereg order) be sure to register early! If you're slow there's no reason to make it worse by handicapping yourself at the start. Then when the race starts, go like crazy. Personally i go full blast the full first lap and semi-blow up, but i think its worth it to avoid all the crashes and bottlenecks that happen funneling into the first turns. People at the back can practically drink a cup of tea while they wait for others to funnel through while the leaders are off to the races.

3: Look ahead. As others said, this is everything. I used to instruct autox and was into motorsports, etc and those skills pay off a ton. In autox you look ahead the entire time, and use your peripheral vision to monitor cones. You never need to look right at a cone. The same thing applies here. Look down the course, see the line, observe obstacles and other racers with your periphery. I've seen people take horrible lines through sections and i'm sure its because they're not looking ahead and connecting the turns smoothly. You don't even need to get into racing line theory, etc, simply looking ahead will make 90% happen automatically.

4: Brakes only slow you down. The more you brake, the more you have to work to build your speed back up. I'm lazy so i avoid braking at all costs. Of course you have to sometimes, but i see lots of fast people way over braking, and even worse braking and turning. NEVER use the front brake in a turn. While watching races I noticed a few instances of people having oh **** moments in a turn going in too fast, they'll hit the brakes (squeal/turkey gobble) and half a second later the front wheel washes out. like clockwork. You need to slow down before a turn. Once you're in the turn, your speed is what it is. don't brake (well maybe a little rear if you must), hold on, and hope for the best. While on that topic, keep pedaling through turns as well

5: Don't stop pedaling. I pretty much only stop pedaling if its a really bumpy fast downhill. Pedal in SOME gear all the time and through all turns. At the end of races when i'm settled in with the slower blown up people, i can always reel somebody in simply by spinning an easy gear (if thats all i can do) and they're coasting around. this is obvious i guess, but spinning an easy gear isn't any harder than coasting and it actually moves you forward to some degree.

Again, if you read nothing else, read this: DO IT!