Aside for the occasional long ride on the weekends or easy rides with the parents, I've never been on a ride before noon in my life. I'm a moderately successful Cat3 looking to be a Cat2 by the end of the summer. There are plenty of races that aren't in the morning on the weekend, but these will be predominantly crits. Caffeine, at least for me, is good; it does exactly what you says it does to you. It gets me primed to race.