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Video: Canadian rider freaks out over jumping spider

Trigger warning: arachnophobia

Canadian David Hesson was perhaps a bit disturbed when he found a spider on his saddle, but he bravely got out his phone to take some footage of it until… well, see for yourself.

It's a jumping spider, but David doesn't seem to realise that when he starts videoing the beast. He soon finds out.

When I used to ride mountain bikes in the woods around Sydney, we called this behaviour an arachnoleptic fit. It was usually displayed by the front rider of a group after a few metres of early-morning singletrack.

The victim, who we had politely ushered into the trail with a cheery "After you!" would blunder into an orb weaver web having clocked the spider at eye level a fraction of a second before, and leap off his or her bike, jumping around and yelling "Getitoffme! Getitoffme! Isitoffme!"

There are about 5,000 species of jumping spiders worldwide. They are not considered a hazard to humans unless you're unlucky enough to both get bitten by one and to be allergic to its venom.

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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5 comments

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Roberj4 | 9 years ago
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Bet that saddle squeeks like a mouse! #wellrusted

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flathunt | 9 years ago
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*Play it cool, I don't think anyone noticed*

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marche | 9 years ago
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another go pro road rage  1

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HKCambridge | 9 years ago
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Pfft, I have a zebra (jumping) spider than lives on my desk.

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fukawitribe | 9 years ago
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..looks like the little fella grabbed the video and f'd off..

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