Our season starts & ends at tradezone :-).

I was thinkin' the same thing - a non-technical crit or circuit race. The race will play out much like a fast RR but with fewer corners or technical features, and hopefully it's more local. The other benefit of training races is the refs usually let you jump back in if you get dropped/lapped, since it's just for training anyways.

If you do enough group rides with local clubs and prepare correctly, there's no reason you should be totally dropped in your first race (unless the ENTIRE field shatters to pieces). Show up prepared to suffer through the speed and surges, and show up ready to learn.