Suddenly I could feel eight little legs making their way up my spine. I watched Jim slowly unfasten his Zefal frame pump, and gripping it like a tennis racket he proceeded to hit the spider with his best back hand top spin shot.

WHAP!

The pump made a dull thud of a sound as it hit me squarely across the back. I was thrown forward from the force and my chest was crushed against my Aero bars. This opened up some stitches from a previous accident. I could only moan and gasp for air as I swerved back and forth across the road.

The crafty spider had foreseen Jim's mighty blow and scurried up my back and now was perched on my left shoulder. In my peripheral vision, I could see a venomous hairy brown creature about three inches in diameter, clinging onto me for dear life. It had fangs about 1/2" long, and it lookedto me like poison venom was dripping profusely from them. Two little beady eyes looked back into mine, and I swear, I saw his twisted brown lips smile at me.

In a sudden move he leaped off my shoulder and two razor sharp pinchers claws caught my ear lobe and the spider dangled there. "JIMMMMM" I screamed as Jim took another back swing with his pump.

THONK!

Jim's last blow hit me right up side the head. For a few seconds I was seeing stars and a solar eclipse all at the same time. At 40 mph I started to pass out and ride off the road, but Jim made a desperate grab at me and managed to grasp the waist band on the back of my Lycra pants. He pulled open a 2 inch gap between my waist and the pants and a rather large SPIDER in distress dropped off my ear lobe and into my now open shorts.