One really fun non-win one was Turlock Lake Road Race in cat 3. Was raining buckets as it tends to do for that early season race. Break of 4 escaped mid-race and I knew the guys were strong and I missed out. Then my rear derailleur cable broke and I was stuck in 50-11 or 34-11 the rest of the day. There was one several mile flurry just after it broke and I was psyched out, almost got dropped. Then one guy came back from the break - he had some kind of mechanical, had to stop and set it straight.
So he and I take off together maybe 25 minutes from the finish after a flurry of attacks started to lull. I'm hurting like hell, afraid he's gonna drop me, but I'm pushing hard and doing my full share, when suddenly he starts drifting back. I'm afraid I can't make it alone especially with my gearing issues, so I ease up slightly and call back to him. He's done, gassed from his earlier break. So I buckle down. I got 10 minutes of short steep rollers followed by a right turn to a tailwind maybe 8 minutes from the line. So I focus on spending all my energy just to get to the tailwind, shifting between 34-11 and 50-11 over and over and over trying to get over the rollers. Round the corner still with a big gap and roll in 4th a minute or so ahead of the field.
Oh and the other tired dude somehow found it in him to win the field sprint after all that!