I'm not a structures expert, so I don't know if it's a workable analogy, but the one tubular bit of carbon-fibre structure I've seen go - rowing oars - tend to hold together pretty well, but when weakened in any way - then they go with a bang. And they fail completely.
Actually I've also seen tubular carbon-fibre boat rigging go as well, and likewise any failure is catastrophic. And any damage to a monocoque carbon boat hull - get thee to port pronto and all hands to the pumps.
oneAustralia AUS35 
From what I've seen (which is admittedly limited), carbon structures either hang together competely, or fail totally.
