(Reuters) – U.S. Junior Men’s National Team member Magnus White has died at the age of 17 after being hit by a car while training in his home of Boulder, Colorado, USA Cycling said on Sunday.
White was focused on his final preparations before leaving for Glasgow in Scotland to compete in the Junior Men’s Mountain Bike Cross-Country World Championships on Aug. 10.
“He was a rising star in the off-road cycling scene and his passion for cycling was evident through his racing and camaraderie with his teammates and local community,” USA Cycling said in a statement.
“We ride for Magnus.”
White won the 2021 Junior 17-18 Cyclocross National Championships, which he called a “pivotal moment” that provided him with opportunities to race in Europe.
He went on to compete with the USA Cycling National Team for a full season of European Cyclocross racing and closed out the year at the 2022 UCI Cyclocross World Championship in Arkansas.
He represented the U.S. at another Cyclocross World Championships in January this year in Hoogerheide, and this summer he earned a spot on the Mountain Bike World Championships team.
White began racing at a national level when he was 10 and credited his father for introducing him to the sport.
“When I was growing up, my dad really got me into cycling because he raced road, then I discovered my local team (Boulder Junior Cycling), which has some really great coaches who got me where I am today,” White said in his profile on the USA Cycling website.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
