the common advice is to keep toward the front in order to stay out of trouble, but I reckon it's best to keep near the back, coz you don't wanna make a mistake in your first race and bring down the whole pack. Just keep a very close eye on weaker riders in front of you that look like they're dropping off the pace, coz you've gotta be ready to ride around them. Make a note of which guys are opening up even the slightest gap in front of them, coz they're usually the guys that will get dropped first.

Try to watch the whole pack, and don't get stuck only watching the tyre in front of you.

Races are usually harder than Beach Rd., especially criteriums, mostly coz they sprint out corners like they're going for the finish line. Veterans racing is obviously easier than open age. "A" grade vets is very hard, but there's a bit of a drop off to to lower grades. The difference between the open age grades is much less dramatic.

There will probably be the occasional very fast surge, and you might think you can't hang on, but bust your balls to keep up, becasue the pace will drop back and you'll get a chance to recover.

Be honest with yourself when they ask what grade you wanna race in; you don't wanna be dropped on the first lap of the first race, and you probably don't wanna look like an arsehole by winning your first race beating the poor old 'F' grade vets on your own by 20km

The best tip is probably to not shoot your load in the first 15 mins. You might feel good, and you might get excited, so it's a common mistake for new riders to blow it all in the first 1/4 of the race. The pace often hots up toward the last 20mins, so if you've gone hard too early you might have nothing left. But if you don't care about not finishing, then......