I must say when I first started doing longer rides (and really still), I loved hearing "awesome" or "good job" from the riders that were zooming by me. I considered it a nice little boost and it always gave me a little energy to keep going. It never occurred to me that some might consider such a comment insulting, and I'm sure none of those comments were meant as such. I know there will always be better riders than me out there, and I'd rather hear a well-intentioned comment than have them just ignore me as not worthy to communicate with. This has been an eye-opening thread, and it will at least make me think a little before I throw out my own encouraging comments to other riders out there (which I don't do very often because I'm usually the slug anyway!).