Magnus White, a 17-year-old “rising star” in aggressive biking, has died after being hit by a automobile in Colorado whereas he was coaching for the world championships, the state police and U.S.A. Biking, the game’s governing physique, stated.
White excelled in cyclocross, a world sport during which racers compete on a course of a number of surfaces, together with pavement and trails, and carry their bicycles over off-road obstacles. He was a junior member of U.S.A. Biking, the Colorado Springs-based group stated.
White was struck by a automobile on Saturday in Boulder County, which has a inhabitants of about 320,000 and is within the north-central a part of the state identified for its rugged mountains, foothills, trails and the College of Colorado campus in Boulder.
He was on a north-south stretch of Freeway 119 often called the Diagonal, which runs between Boulder and Longmont. The street is so steadily utilized by cyclists that native and state authorities are engaged on a long-term plan so as to add a separate bike path in the midst of it.
At about 12:30 p.m., White was using his endurance street bicycle southbound on the shoulder of the freeway when a Toyota Matrix struck him from behind, ejecting him from the bicycle, Trooper Gabriel Moltrer, a public info officer for the Colorado State Patrol, stated on Monday. White was taken to a hospital, the place he was pronounced lifeless, Mr. Moltrer stated.
There was no indication that medicine, alcohol or extreme pace have been concerned, and the motive force was not injured within the accident, which befell northeast of Boulder, Mr. Moltrer stated.
White was a junior member of the 2023 Cyclocross World Championship staff, U.S.A. Biking stated. He was making ultimate preparations earlier than leaving for Glasgow to compete within the Junior Males’s Mountain Bike Cross-Nation World Championships on Aug. 10, it stated.
“He was a rising star within the off-road biking scene,” the group stated, “and his ardour for biking was evident by his racing and camaraderie together with his teammates and area people.”
Cyclocross was invented about 100 years in the past in Europe as an low season coaching routine for road-bike racers. Its enchantment gained momentum in the US within the early 2000s.
Most opponents modify their street bikes with knobby tires and different structural alterations to permit for higher clearance as they navigate paved roads, hills, stairs and different obstacles in the course of the race.
“Because the cyclocross season typically takes place from September to February, races are sometimes instances plagued with adversarial climate situations corresponding to snow, rain, wind and dust — all of which add to the game’s attract,” U.S.A. Biking stated.
White began biking when he was 8, and the game grew to become his “biggest pleasure in life,” his household stated in a press release. He acquired aggressive coaching with Boulder Junior Biking, which develops younger athletes within the sport. White was spurred on by his Colorado childhood of biking and snowboarding, he wrote on his web site, and later developed into an bold athlete who was rising on the worldwide stage.
On his Instagram account, White described the rugged challenges of the game, whether or not pushing by a muddy experience, battling meals poisoning or overcoming a snapped chain throughout a race.
In 2021, White gained the united statesA. Biking Cyclocross Nationwide Championships, and in 2022, he participated in his first world championship in Fayetteville, Ark., putting twenty fifth within the junior division. In 2023, he competed in his second world championship in Hoogerheide, the Netherlands, coming in twentieth within the under-19 group.
“These world occasions supplied me with a deeper understanding of the worldwide dynamics of the game and allowed me to measure myself in opposition to the world’s finest riders,” White wrote.
White had described the upcoming mountain bike race championship in Scotland as a “new and thrilling chapter of my biking profession.”