oroy38 said:
Nothing is worse than a rider with more speed than skill.
If you don't have experience doing hard and fast group rides, start doing them before you get into racing. Jumping into racing without group riding experience and mediocre bike handling skills is a good way to get yourself and others injured.
Probably true, but not everyone has access to group rides- at least ones suitable as training for a race. Around here, the teams are about the only ones that do group rides, and even they don't do them with any real frequency. None of the shops sponsor group rides, and the informal ones don't ever seem to get off the ground. Lots of races (and charity ride, populaires, randonneuring, triathalons...) though, relative to the number of active racers we have.
You never know what you're going to get in a Cat5 race. I've seen WalMart cruisers, fixies, dedicated touring or commute bikes (racks still attached), and all sorts of other bikes line up for races, and racers of all shapes and sizes in varying levels of fitness and ability. Some hang, some don't, some ride off the front- entry level classes are notoriously unpredictable, which is why I don't suggest people do crits as their first race unless that's all that's readily available.
Situations vary.