I searched the posts and found a good thread on this same subject but it still left some questions unanswered. Has anyone ever had a flat with the tape and if so what was it like? Do I need to carry tape with me during races?

In my experience, the Tufo tape is much stronger than most glue jobs. Good from the standpoint of adding confidence that you won't roll your tire, but it is definitely a struggle to pull the tire back off in a hurry.

I used it on an older wheel and decided to pull the tire off and bring it as a spare on a trip. I wound up needing to use that tire for my race tire, and felt that the tape was still sticky enough to re-use (factoring in that it was the day before race day and it would have been tough to do a good job of cleaning the rim). The tape sticks to the tire like crazy.

I'd use it again, although like you say I might try to leave a little gap to help get started. Better than a gap might be to partially de-sticky a small section of tape...a gap might make the wheel a little less round since the tape is pretty thick.

thanks for the input, I really appreciate it. Any more tips/experience would be great.