End of a long and unpredictable road season

Well, the end of the road season finally hit. It looks like the Mountain State Classic won't be happening this year. I'll have finished it up with a mix between a whimper and victory. I'll have won the WV road series for a second year in a row without having to defend the lead on one of the toughest courses of the series and in my final two road races of the year, I had one win and a total dud. The first one was a disaster due to a total screw up on my part. I ate breakfast just a bit too close to the start and at the top of the last hill on the course, I could feel it sitting at the back of the throat. Then on the first climb about a third or the way through the 8 mile lap, I could feel the pressure of breakfast really wanting to come back for a return visit. Unfortunately, there was a very serious attack going on here and I was torn between trying to hang on to the pack and using some finger therapy to force other things along. In the end, I was able to do neither and I got dropped. Dammit, that was such a rookie type mistake. I rode a few more laps of the course and talked one of the women on the course out of quitting. Holly was a first year racer and I showed her a few things along the way including how to position herself a bit better on the bike so she could better take advantage of descents and not lose speed through corners. I do like to help newer riders learn all of the things I had to on my own. If I had someone telling me these sort of things in the start, I would've won lots more races other than the time trials I usually took back then. I had the strength to string things out and be the sprint pylon at the end of the race. In the end she finished and was happy about it. Sunday's race was a bit less well attended and we had to combine a few of the groups. The masters went off with women and the 4/5s. We lost a half dozen on the first climb and at the end of the first lap we had a group of about a dozen that would stay together til the finish. One of the reasons for this was a Cat 2 rider who'd gotten dropped from his race decided he'd be a dickhead and helped his club members in this race. He'd pace them back when at a couple points a few of us attacked, then he also screened myself and one of the other riders when they tried an attack. I was really at the point of just shoving him off the course. Subtle cues like 'DON'T INTERFERE WITH OUR RACE' and 'GET YOUR ASS TO THE BACK OF THIS PACK, PLEASE' didn't quite register with him. Halfway through the last lap, I heard him say 'well, I better sit back otherwise someone might get mad'. Too late, I'd passed go about 15 miles before. There was an attack by one of the masters riders in the group and I was on it quick. We'd gapped the others but dammit, you know who was pacing the rest back to us. On the last climb, one of his club-members attacked and I got up to him. You know who tagged along and in the run-in to the final turn he got in my way and I lost several miles per hour and a few yards on the front group. I got back to one rider after the other and with 100 yards and coming out from the next to last rider to the front, I saw the final rider looking back to his right, so I went left. He thought he had it and 50 yards from the finish, I blew by him going 5 mph faster. Nothing like taking someone by surprise. It was good way to finish the year out. With the exception of doing one more Westlake circuit race to get an extra hard day of training, I'm ready to put the road bike away and pull the cross bikes out.