First race of the winter handicap points series yesterday. All the races are 40km on a flat circuit that is bad on windy days. It was a mass start to establish the starting handicaps for the remaining races. I finished 1:30 behind the leaders, although none of the club's elite riders turned up, that would have been a further 5 minutes deficit.

The first downwind stretch bust up the starting bunch hammering at 50kmh+ and then a massive surge out of a corner 20 minutes in spat three of us out the back which let us ride at a steady pace for the remainder of the ride, average speed 39kmh. I won our bunch sprint

I did consider afterwards I could have cruised and picked up a better handicap, but the club handicapper would have been onto that and stuck me in scratch

Good stack avoidance skills. I've had a similar experience, but left the scene in a red and white van after the crash in front of me kept following my escape path.