Today I was the sweep for the same ride I did over Labor Day Weekend, in Tiverton, RI/Westport, MA. Again, beautiful, cooler weather. We had about 10 people, and of course, there was one who was much slower than everyone else. So slow, that on the last hill, I had to get in front of her, or I was going to fall over, and the leader, my friend, Lamar, rode back to see if we were OK, just when I had stopped to text him. We did the older route, which has a scary left turn right at the top of said hill, and I had to almost yell at the woman to get in the lane, as I had already blocked the traffic for us, with aggressive signaling. Once we turned onto the last road, which is a bit of a slog, maybe a steady 3% grade, Lamar told me he would sweep and I sprinted so far ahead, I got back about 30 seconds after the guy who had been far in front. I was kind of angry that Lamar had not screened her well enough, and this is why we do this; we are required by liability rules to keep everyone together. Then, my GPS was not working right, because he had not done the waypoints right. He doesn't have a GPS, just uses Ride with GPS to do cue sheets. I know this route well, but we have changed it so many times, I wanted to keep some of the others in sight!
Anyway, it was 42 miles and I am not even tired, because I was going slowly for at least 25 of those miles. After the ride, we went out to eat at a traditional New England seafood place overlooking a bay. The glass of wine I had calmed me down! On the way home Lamar, his girlfriend, and I stopped at my favorite soft serve ice cream place near home, so that was a nice end to the day.
Yesterday I rode 30 miles in Harvard, MA with a friend, so I actually rode 116 miles this week, a lot more than I have been doing.