Lightning may never strike twice in the same place, but when it comes to attacking UCI Road World Championship riders, the Australian bird seems to have a favorite.

Morema, the current Dutch national time trial champion and multiple stage winner at the Tour de France, was jumped from behind his helmet by a territorial magpie during training on Tuesday.

Just 24 hours later, Morema had his second close encounter with the birds when he was targeted by a gull while representing the Netherlands in a mixed relay TTT race. In dramatic footage, the seagull struck Morema squarely on the left shoulder and flew away.

In a day of setbacks large and small for the Dutch team, Mollema had already suffered a mechanical accident in the same TTT event. And later in the day, teammate Annemiek van Fruten suffered a dramatic crash early in the race and broke her elbow.

The Dutch team was one of the favorites to win the 28 km mixed relay TTT, but ultimately had to settle for fifth place.

Morema was kept at a distance by her teammates when she was attacked by a seagull, but was able to continue running as she did on Tuesday. He did not seem to stop to talk to reporters in the media mix zone afterwards.

However, the probability of two such collisions in a short period of time seems high, and while it is unclear why the seagulls targeted the Dutch players, it is apparently not unusual for magpie incidents to occur at this time of year in Australia.

Belgium's Remco Evenpole said he was followed and "terrified" by a magpie before a weekend time trial, and Grace Brown and Elinor Backstedt also subsequently reported encounters of their own.

Magpie Alert, a website dedicated to documenting magpie attacks, has recorded over 1,500 attacks this year alone.