Sweep / nice thank-you

On the ride from Amsterdam to Brugge we had a group of 17 riders including our guide.  The guide normally rides at front of the pack and leads the way. At the other end of the pack is the last rider, or "sweep".  In between you've got a mix of riders, riding styles, and standard or e-powered bikes.

Riding sweep in general just means... ride slow enough that nobody gets left behind.  It can have moments of high drama and responsibility, but even those mainly are addressed by phoning the guide at the front and saying "hey we have a problem back here."  So I guess the single most important thing for riding sweep may be: have a cell phone that works for a local call.  I had that and met some of the other criteria as well:  slacker, happy riding slow, and likes to have conversations with whoever else is at the back of pack at the moment.

Anyway, I rode sweep for much of the trip.  Frequently joined by Katie, which was nice.  And we didn't leave anyone behind accidentally.

One of our group paid me the nicest compliment at the end of the ride, nice enough that I don't want to forget it.  She was a good competent rider, but maybe felt a little challenged by the daily distances and some of the speed demon riders with e-bikes.

Paraphrasing since I don't remember her exact words, but what she said was close to this:  "Thank you for riding sweep. Your approach to it gave me permission to feel good about my riding."  That was a really nice thing to say.

K & S riding sweep