Karma Kicks in (Cootamundra Handicap)

Prelude
My life pretty much runs in a straight line, neither positive nor negative. With just the occasional blip up or down. Nothing major, nothing significant. But this last week, pretty much everything that could go wrong has, both at work and some personal things too. By the time today rolled around, I just could not give a sh!t in regards to riding my bike.
There are just times where everything else just presses in, and no matter how much riding you do it just doesn't make up for everything else.

Saturday
Turning up in Coota is bit like going backwards on the metropolitan scale by two clicks. It's a country town and truth be told it's one of the few I actually enjoy going there. This year we elected not to race both days due to weighing up cost versus return for both days of racing.
Prior to the race, I had been think whether I could remember the last time scratch had ridden through the field and in the 4 years I have ridden they haven't come close once!
Sign on, hand over licence, get numbers. I start throwing the bike together and one of the rear brake pads pops out of the holder. Cause I need more stress right now! I spend the next 10 minutes quietly cursing and forcing the pad back into the holder. Getting it back in a bit or relief and time to get changed, choke down a can of creamed rice and roll around to the start.
Waiting in the start area, chilling watching all the bikes roll past. I notice that the number of people using SRM's has increased and there are about 5 with them on the bike, and a couple of power taps.
We get the call up with two minutes to start. We're starting 2 minutes behind second block and two minutes ahead of scratch. The name of the game in a handicap race is to catch those in front, while staying away from those behind. Scratch had 15 riders and we had 22, I figured we would get caught about 30k's in given the gap, and the normal way block rides.
We get the call to the line, 30 to go then OFF!

Handicap Racing
The first part of a handicap is about establishing a rhythm for the bunch and settling in. This race has a hill climb situated 5k in so getting warmed up, settled in and prepared for about 5 minutes of pain is important. Last year I rode off scratch for this race and we were pull 50kph to the base of the hill and 30kph up it. I was pulling 500w on the first 90 seconds of the climb before exploding spectacularly. This year I managed to get over the climb and settle in back on the flat.
The race pulls a right hand turn before the railway lines at about 20k and what was a tailwind turns into a cross wind from this point until another right hand turn another 20k up the road back to Coota. By this stage the bunch was working in a consistent manner maintaining 41-43kph in the cross winds. We can see the commissars car of the bunch in front so there is a bit of a carrot there.
There is another climb at about the halfway mark and I can normally storm up this climb due to being warmed up and happy by then. this year was no different. One of the riders launched up the climbed, and due to the fact I raced against this guy back in NZ I knew he was a really good rider worth not giving any rope to. I bridged up on the climb, and the aim was to try and get to the bunch in front before we went over the top. No dice! we miss getting across and the gap back to the chasers isn't far so I turn off the gas across the top and sit up. However the first to catch up isn't my bunch, but scratch towing everyone else.
It's now game on! Staying up at the front and out of the gutter so as not to miss any breaks. Down the road, right hand turn at the round about, and the final leg back to Coota. Head wind so the speeds good a touch. Time to make sure I'm up near the front. Using the gutter, and gravel shoulder I make sure I'm up there up and over Deer hill. Then we catch the final bunch, so that's it it's on for young and old. Scratch and front markers, and there in lies the problem the two shouldn't mix. Back markers are used to riding the last 10k at speeds in excess of 50kph front markers aren't!

Karma kicks in!
With just on 5k to go someone in the first 15 riders touches a wheel and absolute carnage ensues. I have been riding over 15 years now have never seen anything like this. 100 rider bunch 40 riders go down! I am the first rider to pull up and not pile in on top of everyone else. I keep it up right and vertical, I somehow catch a rear wheel from the left that snags the bars and pulls the bike onto the ground. Riders pile in from behind, at least another 4 or 5 put I'm kinda just stand there sans bike just hoping no one hits me from behind...and then it'over.
I try to dis-entangle my bike from the one that has hooked the handlebars but no joy so I lift the to up over to the verge and gently dis-entangle the wheel and my handlebar. 90 seconds of trying and it's done. I mount up and try to restart, um no chance! I get back off and check the rear tire and this is the damage,

A bit of a hole!

To pull up in time and not pile on top of everyone else I had to shred the rear tire....literally! The road cut through the tread, through the casing and even through the base tape on the under side!And this is where I started to consider Karma. Given everything that went wrong this week, I would honestly say that I would gladly trade it for not being involved in this crash. I saw at least 1 destroyed front carbon wheel, three ambulances were called to check the injured...so all up I consider myself pretty luck walking away (literally I walked 1.5k in sock before I got picked up) by destroying a $130 tire.