First Road Race ... any TIPS???

I'm doing my first road race in two weeks. Panoche Valley in California. It's 40 miles with 2,000 feet of climbing. Not supposed to be any killer hills, just easy to moderate one's in grade and length, which is good, cause I kinda suck at climbing, but make up for it pretty good on the descents. I do pretty good on rollers, which I'm hoping this is more like.

Past results show only 10-ish women typically compete in the Cat 4 and none of them seem to be on teams with anyone else in the race. So I shouldn't be a loner competing with any teams.

I need to be in the low 18 mph average range to be somewhere in the running with the other ladies, per past race results and an email I got from the organization. I'm really not sure if I can do that, depending on what the climbing is really like, but I apparently have found the guts to try! At least I'll find out what a road race is like and will be faster for having trained for it and done it, even if I come in 10 minutes behind everyone else!

I'd love any racing tips you guys might have. Thanks!

If you can work your very hardest to stick with the group (thus drafting at high speed) you will suffer much less. If you get dropped, try to regroup with others and work with them (rotating paceline, hopefully they will know how to do this, you'd be surprised how many don't). Expect the unexpected! Have fun! Practice( gently) bumping into other cyclists and (gently)touching wheels on grass before you do this race. Don't yell, yipe or scream during the race, unless something very,very,very bad has happened. (this all may sound silly, but it's all from my recent experience as a cat 4 racer). Have fun! (oh, and get in a good warm up on your trainer right before the race of course)

Don't be baited into taking the lead. This will sap your energy. Stay with the group.
Learn what you can about the route so you don't take any wrong turns.
Greet the other racers prior to the race and wish them safe competition.
Be proud of yourself no matter the outcome.
Barb

Thanks ladies. Yes, I'm hoping to stay with the group, but I'm worried they might get ahead of me on the hills. In group rides, I typically fall behind on the hills and catch up and often pass on the descent. But those aren't races. I'm amazed how many people power up a hill and lollygag down it! That's when it's FUN! And much less effort to go fast. But in a race, I'm sure everyone will power up and continue to power down. So we'll see how I do with that.

This business of practicing bumping into people. Sounds scary! Yet it make sense and I think I've read that on this site before. Any more tips for that? I can't even imagine how to go about this. Can't imagine riding my road bike on grass for one thing. However, I'm sure my husband would have fun doing this type of training with me. Just yesterday we rode together on a lonely mountain road and he was riding beside me a lot chatting and going slow (for him) while I was working hard. He kept swerving toward me every now and then and it kept making me nervous. He finally said, "You better not race if you can't handle anyone getting close to you!" And he's right. The difference is, we weren't racing and I was just in pain trying to get up 4500 feet of climbing and didn't want to deal with the distraction of worrying about bumping into each other. But I do need to start thinking about that and training for it. So any more tips on how to do that would be appreciated, plus tips on what to do in those situations when you get bumped by a tire or whatever. Dh taught me that when your tire gets too close or bumps someone's tire, not to turn your wheel, but to lean away from the tire. So, I get that. More tips like that would be great.

Thanks!