Ullrich and the Mantis

Great night at ACL last night. So good, that the Dough Roll got cancelled by the Coach. I got up and felt surprisingly well so I decided to do a little Mod Aussie action. BTW, I heard that several Doughboys were out today - Maurico, Fitzy, and Veej all ran into each other and I ran into Fitzy.

Prologue

So where to start? Wha wa happened was....as I left Lakeway I couldn't decide if I was going to country club it or try and go quick. That was decided for me by fate. As I came down to the dip below Panozzo's point, this praying mantis on a bike passed me. He must have just started the triad sport as he was pretty muscular up top. He was fit and I just let him go. Then 3/4 of the way up the hill I see him sit up. What? Is there a chink in the armor??? Crest the top and I am on him but I stay back. He definetly knew I was there.

Scene One

Across the dam he starts to drop me. Then as we approach perdnales electric, three VOP guys slide by. The Mantis latches onto their wheel and they all slowly pull away from me. At the new construction site, the Mantis is shat out the back. He is in no man's land and Ullrich smells blood in the water. So, we roll to a stop at the light at Steiner and I turn to him and say good morning. He seems to say "How the f*ck is this rotund rider hanging with me?"

Scene Two

Light turns green, he lets me go first. Oh, so he lets me set the pace! Well played Mantis! So now we are rolling and we are passing slower people as we come up to the church and the final climb. I am trying to keep it under control so I can get in his head at the end. Just before the light at Oasis, I get out of the saddle. Yeah baby, I was en fuego! Crest the hill and start pounding it out until the light at 2222. Looks like what he thought was going to be some Doughboy stew turned into some fried Mantis baby!

Epilogue

There was no epilogue, I did not see the Mantis again.

The battle did take its toll on the German. On the back end, at the mall I had to country club it. I didn't feel bad as I knew I burned a whole book of matches against the Mantis. Sweet roll baby! One last note, the stretch on Spicewood will be very nice for the next couple of weeks with the cool weather and fall leaves.

Ullrich