I'm going to go against the grain here.
Do you have any events picked out yet?
I wouldn't aim for the most local one, I would aim for the one with the easiest bike course. The local ones here small, and are all loops of rolling hills on roads with curves. But if you drive a little bit, the bigger ones are in the middle of cities, where it's just there and back on closed city streets with an effort to be flat. That's a lot easier, a lot less intimidating, and a lot more people around if something bad happens.