I'm aways from masters racing. 25 right now. Been reading and asking some questions in the 33', and much of the advice there mirrors yours. Especially knowing how to deal with contact.

There are indeed a few skills clinics coming up, possibly even one this weekend I can make. If not I ought to be able to grab someone from my team and get practice that way.

I think in general my plan is keep plugging away, eating right, and start hitting the group rides on Sat/Sun as well. I'll have to try to think about good descents that fit the bill you described. Many of the climbs here are pretty solid climbs with plenty of tight turns/switchbacks but there are probably some decent 1-2 mile smaller hills with wider, more residential style road turns that would allow for something of that nature.

It's worth noting that my descending is significantly worse than my cornering. Both suffer from a fear of cornering hard enough stemming from concern about not knowing what the limit is, but downhill gets me especially squirrely because you invariable pick up speed (a signficant amount of it on the 7-10% stuff) going around corners, which means the cornering has to increase. Usually I get uncomfortable, straighten a bit, and brake...or just straight come through at some really, really slow initial speed.