First Road Race ... any TIPS???

[Jiffer]

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!