Bitter experience tells us that when a cyclist feels the splat of a gnat on the back of the throat, there is little to be done but swallow and hope that it a gnat. This happens more often than you'd think; as the U.S. Army's standard survival manual puts it, "insects are easily caught." Yes, very easily.

San Francisco is remarkably bug-free, of course. In some parts of the country, cyclists have no need of energy bars--they're like bats, subsisting on the high-protein content of the insects they catch on the wing. Here, though, it's a surprise to find one's self suddenly eating a bug, especially at 8:30 p.m. in November.

What kind of bug was it? Find out after the jump.

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