Last night I'm packing up my backpack in preparation for my second bike commute to work this week. I normally only ride once a week, since its a 40 mile round trip. I've been wanting to increase my frequency, and although I wasn't overly motivated at the time, I got my gear ready anyway.

So I get up this morning and hit the road. Although it's still dark out, I immediately notice there's a lot more clouds in the sky than normal and it dawns on me that I forgot to check the weather last night. I make my first turn and see lightning off in the distance. I pull over and check my weather app, and as I do, it begins to rain. I'm only a mile from the house, so I turn around. I'm not that hardcore, and 20 miles of riding in the rain is not too appealing to me at 5:30 in the morning.

Fast forward 2 hours and I'm sitting in my office, sipping my coffee, checking facebook while logging on. On my neighborhood page, someone asks what was all the commotion this morning. Police, ambulance, etc... Seems a cyclist was hit at the exact time I bailed out, about two blocks away from where I turned around. In fact, one neighbor described me, saying he had seen a biker headed that way. I had a weird Twilight Zone/alternate reality moment. Ah... wait, I wasn't hit, I'm at work. I'm still pretty freaked out about it. And just when I was getting my wife comfortable with my commuting. Sheesh. I wont even go there now.

Anyway, just thought I'd share. I have no idea who the cyclist was, or what their condition is. Hoping and praying for the best.

BTW - reaction to the fb post is mostly geared toward "crazy drivers" as opposed to "crazy bikers". There are no street lights on that stretch of road and it is near a school. A few months ago a child was struck in a cross walk. Lots of energy to get lights up.

Well, sounds like a good day to have bailed! I've only been caught in lightning once, and I was 3 miles from home on my afternoon commute. I would have preferred somewhere to pull over and wait it out, but there was nothing around until I got super close, and at that point, well I just pushed on to get home.

Wait... did the cyclist get hit by lighting or a car?

Oh sorry... Car.

Have you adopted the "if its percip'ing, put lights on" policy? I have, and it seems to make a difference.  Back in march i think it was a freak extremely heavy snow dump materialized and when i stopped to take a photo, i put the lights on.  Only lasted maybe 10 minutes total, but motorists could definitely see me. I do the same in rain of any intensity. I have been contemplating looking into a moisture sensitive switch so i don't have to reach down to turn the knob on the back of my headlight, but maybe stopping to do that is the safer thing, re-check things to ensure they are still a-ok, and deploy my bag's rain covers if needed.

- Andy