You can eat something while you ride, ffs indeed Zoot

Be prepared in your first race to be shelled out of the back... It is normal and doesn't mean you aren't fast enough. Almost everyone has this expereince in their first race. I'd advise to stay near the front of the bunch at all times but not quite at the front and do not do any work, just look and see how it is done. If you stay near the front of the bunch you get dragged along, can see what racing is happening AND it gives you a buffer to drift back without being dropped. Also, the bungy effect is least at the front or near the front so again less chance of being spat out of the back around a bend or on a hill Also most crashes then tend to happen behind hyou and not in front so you are out of harms way!

I managed a little ride again today... building up slowly. Half an hour Friday, 50 minutes yesterday, today we did 1hr 45 minutes of riding time with a coffee and cake stop an hour in. My friend and I are both recovering from operations to a cycling race injury so both feeling a bit fragile and all that, so it worked well. Only, when we came to our original coffee point, 40 minutes in, we decided on a different route and coffee point which we later regretted as the ride really was about 25 minutes too long... ah well, the sun shone and we turned the pedals