People keep saying that cross is the sort of thing you can and maybe should just "jump into," and it's best to get your feet wet. It is something I am interested in doing at some point as a new challenge.

That said, I have really no cross skills. I can only do dismounts if I'm on platform pedals and can't do mounts at all, and I basically only have experience riding on the road which means my bike handling skills aren't great - I am worried about sharp turns, drop offs, etc. My fitness has been dropping off since October, too - I've been riding but nothing hard.

I have seen some cross races, but unfortunately mostly just the elites which doesn't give me a lot of confidence. When I saw my husband race in a cat 4/5 men's everyone seemed to more or less know what they were doing, too, although I wasn't exactly watching for mistakes. The tandem race WAS welcoming and fun and hilarious, but unfortunately I don't have a tandem!

So -- is it better to give myself a year to practice skills (I'm thinking about getting a mountain bike, which I imagine will improve my offroad confidence greatly), or should I just go in completely unprepared??