Jiffer, THANK YOU for your stories and advice! It's good to know that someone else has gone into these nervous, but reading about your races just makes me more excited.

The road stages are 36 and 48 miles (or at least that's what I'm remembering off the top of my head). I'm pretty good on hills for no other reason than I'm light and have a good power-to-weight ratio. Riding with bigger guys is a game where I shoot up the hills and then try to make it down before they bomb down and pass me! My boyfriend is a pro triathlete and I draft off him regularly (no other way I could keep up!), but I am nervous about drafting behind anyone less experienced. A broken collarbone in training was enough to keep him out of draft-legal road racing, so he's no help here!

Good point about being blocked in the middle of the group - I'm checking on the rules for the race now. Did you find that everyone was pretty confident with handling in the pack, or were there a few "twitchy" riders?