FWIW I encountered a lot of nice people on the metric route, too.

On the earliest climb (Lucas Valley?) Lee and I passed by a lot of people having a hard time. They looked in general like fairly new riders, a bit out of shape, and many had woefully under-geared bikes for their abilities [insert my usual rant about bike shops selling racer-guy bikes to most decidedly not racer-guy people]. Many of them had TNT jerseys on - that's not meant to imply anything about TNT, just an observation. To give them credit, most of the people I passed had really great attitudes. This was very early in the ride, and Lee and I were wondering if many of them would be able to finish.

On the only particularly steep climb of the metric ride, Wilson Hill Rd immediately after the metric and 100 mile routes diverged, one guy had to get off and walk a good chunk of it. I was going so slow that I stayed along side him for a ways and we had a nice chat. Always a hoot when you're going so slow up a hill that someone can walk along side you A few others coming by oh-so-slowly joined in on the conversation, it was fun.

Many people had compliments on the AV jersey. If they weren't passing too fast I'd tell them how friends of mine designed it.

I encountered the occasional jerk (or doofus) on the ride, but either there were fewer than usual, or they don't bug me as much as they used to. Maybe a little of both.