See you on the start line 
The Race is 3/4 so will be a mix of abilities, but you’ve most likely done all of the hard work, now time to reap the reward.
As people have said plenty of places to warm up with the track & university campus nearby. Race is likely to start fast, (being able to clip in quickly at the start will help you with placings).
Normally your number will come with pins as well, no need to normally bring those along.
I’ll be wearing the VC York kit, feel free to say Hi
BC website. Most of the road racing in the UK is now crit style racing as road racing is so expensive to put on clubs and organisers hardly break even nowadays. Getting police and NEG is so expensive.
I can’t speak for the OP’s crit but pretty sure all the Scottish ones I’ve done had chip timing. I suspect British Cycling stipulate its use.
Riderhq is a good site too.
Get yourself a NoPinz skin suit and never worry about pins again! The team I race for luckily use them as club kit, so it’s one less stressful thing to do.
Enjoy it- don’t stress about points in your first races, just get used to the buzz and excitement and you’ll soon know who to watch and where to go.
Like others have said, checklist and pack the night before.
Over the last few years I have forgotten shoes, helmet, garmin, heart rate strap, jersey (with numbers on it), bottles and god knows what else.
I’ve probably done over a hundred races so it shows what happens as you age…
I’d take a turbo or rollers, you can get a proper warm up without trying to run up and down a small patch of road.
Warm clothes for afterwards at this time of year and recovery drink.
Most importantly an open mind and sense of adventure so you enjoy it.
@
The problem with a nopinz suit for road racing is different races can require you to position your numbers differently.
OP I would definitely go with pins for your numbers rather than the spray adhesive. Good idea to take a few spares
Also, given the likelihood of having a get down, I wouldn’t use a pricey skin suit for a 3/4 crit - unless it’s insured then go for it!
The road race suit has two pockets for left or right- never been an issue with all the races I’ve done 
The list is good.
I always have spare pins as you don’t want your number flapping about. And yep, don’t forget nail clippers for removing the timing chips. I’d recommend also some electrical tape to wrap round your fork leg to protect the paint from the chip.
Make sure you check the weather forecast and take the right clothes for the conditions. Regardless of what the forecast says, always pack a race cape.
You’ll get an email with race details from the organiser if you haven’t already done so. Read the information carefully.
Pay attention to the commissaire during the pre-race briefing. Also pay close attention to how the organisers will deal with lapped riders. Often they’ll be pulled out in the final 5 laps.
Don’t forget your race license otherwise you won’t be starting.
Although cat 4 kit restrictions are loose, I’d avoid trade team kit, or any replica championship bands jerseys. Plain jersey, not black, will be best option.
Race will start hard, get clipped in quick.
Don’t stress if folk shout at you during the race. It’s to be expected, and will be forgotten as soon as you cross the line.
Enjoy. It’ll be a blast!!
This ^
There can be quite a lot of ‘chatter’ in crits. Don’t let that become a focus.
Personally I wouldn’t take a turbo, you’ll likely be nervous enough without having to deal with swapping wheels or bikes around on a turbo. Take plenty of layers and ride the course as much as you can to get warmed up. Learn it as much as you can before the start. A field of 60 is going to have a mix of abilities, just focus on holding your line and not braking too much. Ignore the Sagan wannabees and focus on your race. Be prepared to dig in!
This is great! Thanks everybody. I’m making a list of all this info and will pack tomorrow. Bike is getting cleaned and checked over this afternoon, if nothing else it’ll look good 
. Seriously, what a great community this is! Goes well with a great product in TrainerRoad. Thanks TrainerRoad too. Think I’ll report back after the event just to give a first timers view of it all, the good, bad and the ugly 
Good luck! I’ll look for your result in next week’s Cycling Weekly 
Looking forward to the write up!
Another insight on bringing a trainer to warm up on…
Putting it all away might be an extra thing to worry about when getting ready to get to the line. It may be less stressful to warm up on the road.
What kind of W/Kg should I be looking at before entering Cat4 races in the UK? Or does it vary too much by region to give any kind of answer? I’m in Yorkshire if that helps?
Currently sitting at 3.4 with an easy few kg I can lose and about to start SSB2 with a view to entering a race this Summer…
Not sure how the OP found the race but it was full gas from the start.
The race split from the start, i’d say half of the field was dropped in the first 5 minutes. With two teammates from Durham University working hard. One managed to jump away from the first group of 20 riders, he then proceeded to lap the whole field including the first group (he’s won 6 out of 7 this year). As you’d expect his teammate shut down any other attack.
Few stats for those interested.
40 minute race
330NP at 70kg
Sprinted to 6th
Difficult race for anyone, nevermind if that was your first. I’ve certainly raced ‘easier’ cat 3/4 races this year.
3/4 races are strange beasts. You also have to remember that a few of those 3s could well have been 2s last year and failed to retain their license. Once you get a few of them in a race, the dynamics really shift. Certainly sounds like you all had to put a shift in 
Oh man!!!
Where do i start? What an eye-opener that was 
I know it was “just” a mixed cat 3/4 race but I just wasn’t expecting that. Race lasted 40 minutes and the winner averaged 43kph ( 27mph) and he lapped everyone including second place. No offence to everyone else but, he just looked like he was at the wrong race and shouldn’t have been racing with us, he was so smooth and looked like it all was no effort yet he was so much quicker than the rest of us, he was a cat 3. A friend of his said he had been on the Great Britain rowing team. Back to the race and I just wasn’t prepared for the jostling and bumping for position that there was during the first few laps. It bordered on dangerous to a first timer and not necessary but I’ll know better next time (there will be a next time as I’ve signed up another one in a months time) which will also give me a bit more time to work on my fitness a bit more also. My race ended prematurely as I gave it big licks out of the hairpin bend to catch the pack I felt something “twang” in my leg just below my knee on the outside of my leg. It was a pain last year but sort of went away towards the end of the year and I thought that was the end of that. But obviously not 
So I cruised round to the start/finish and thought it prudent to finish at that point rather than do some longer lasting damage and de-rail the rest of the year. Just half a dozen laps of the 1.05k circuit. Anyway I sort of enjoyed what I got out of it. To be honest my TrainerRoad workouts seem harder, although it’s a different type of harder if you know what I mean. I did enjoy it but there was a bit too much to take in at one go as a first timer. I didn’t get to say hi to @LewisRidley, sorry, but never saw you amongst everything going on. Stuff was a bit of a blur. Hope your race went ok.
It was more of a shock to the system really or more like a rude awakening as I thought I couldn’t have prepared much better. I had the day off work the day before to sort my stuff out, changed my powermeter batteries for brand new ones just in case and even ate like @Nate_Pearson for three days before the race managing to stuff in 8g of carbs per kilo of body weight ( man, is that hard! And i know Nate managed 10g/kg!) all my gear was packed and organised the night before. I got to the race two hours early to get everything sorted in good time and make sure I warmed up properly. I did take the turbo but never used it as there was lots of quiet roads around to warm up on and that’s what I’d say the majority of the riders did. But, next time I will go with what I know and use the turbo to warm up on. There was loads of parking and it was all safe and monitored so leaving stuff in the car wasn’t so much of a worry. I also had a look at Strava afterwards to see what the winner and other riders were putting out in terms of watts and averages etc. I wasn’t that far off on speed (and once you lose the wheel or the guy in front of you loses his wheel, it really is hard work to get back on with the pack). I wasnt far off on average speed, maybe 2kph slower but the wattage some people were averaging was quite a bit more than me. The third placed rider was the exception though as he was lightweight but his handling and general race skills must have been good to have finished where he did so there is hope for me yet.
For those asking about w/kg to race in uk crits I’m just over 3.5w/kg but lightweight at 63kg (139 pounds) so on a flat day like today I’d reckon higher raw watts would be a better bet than w/kg. So between now and the next race I’m going to continue with the general build, I’ve got 4 weeks left (low volume) and throw in a few more crit specific workouts on an attempt to replicate what went on today to better prepare for next time. It wasn’t an expensive day out or learning curve really. It cost £15 total so just under $20 to our American friends (how does that compare to you?). Any advice will be much appreciated. Cheers.
If there are other racers in your club, is it worth having a training session with them dedicated to pack riding and bumping around? I know my club organise sessions on grass where leaning on each other is the name of the game, in order to make you better able to cope when that happens in races.
Sounds like you gave it a good go, and it was a hard race for everyone, never mind a 1st timer, so well done and keep going.