I'm kinda with scout on this one. When you chase a guy down and then actually catch up to him, you'd better be prepared for a physical confrontation. I'm gonna guess this guy didn't think you were chasing him so you could invite him for a cup of tea and enlighten him about how to share the road with cyclists.
I won't even get into the fact that there are so many yahoos driving around that carry weapons in their cars just hoping for an incident to arise.
I think keeping one's cool and maybe jotting down a license plate number and reporting him is the sane.....and safe way.
But, hey, that's just my opinion. You keep chasing down--on your 30 pund bike--crazy motorists in 2 tons of steel cages. Myself, I'll pass on that.

*PS: I am glad you're alright though and nothing came out of all of it. Don't want to lose more bicyclists.