I've been doing other riding this spring, so haven't been racing since March. This is my first season and last night was my 5th race, so still learning. It's a dead flat course with 4 turns, 5 laps of about 2+ miles each. The race started, and I had this momentary brain fart where I couldn't clip in. Once I got it, I moved to 4th wheel. There were 26 racers. I read in another thread the other day, "If you're not passing, you're being passed." That's largely true. For most of the first 3 laps, I hung around 3rd wheel. Other racers wanted me to go, but I'm a big guy, and I'm not down with being a wind break for the rest of the lead group. I wanted to ride conservatively but avoid being dropped. I shut down all the breaks for the first 3 laps, except one, but he went right into the wind with no support. He was reeled in pretty quickly. Then I realized that I shouldn't be shutting down the breaks all the time: Let's see what other people can do! Sure enough, they shut them down, and I got a free ride. There was a 4th lap sprint finish because some other dude couldn't count. On the 5th lap, one guy went with about 1/3 of a lap left, right into the wind. I let him go. The peloton went for him. I had to go. That racer got away and won. The rest of the pack went to the left to follow another rider. I took the inside, laid down some power on the final stretch (like 600+W from the corner), and got 3rd.
Overall, this was my most manageable race. I could think while I was riding, and I wasn't suffering trying to get on the back of the peloton. I felt like I had more gas in the tank at the end, but I also think that it was subdued because it was straight Cat 5. The last 3 have been 4/5, so harder with the more experienced guys in there. The podium finish feels good, too.