CANBERRA: Veteran British endurance cyclist Mike Hall died early on Friday after being struck by a car during the Indian Pacific Wheel race from Perth to Sydney, event officials said.

The organisers called off the remainder of the race several hours after the accident.

Police from the Australian Capital Territory said a male cyclist died at the scene following the collision on the Monaro Highway near Williamsdale. The cyclist was travelling north, just inside the ACT border with New South Wales state, when the accident occurred.

More than six hours after the accident, race officials, after notifying his next of kin, confirmed in a statement that the cyclist was Hall, 35, of Harrogate, England. They called his death “a great loss to the global cycling community.”

Hall was in second place in the race when his global positioning satellite (GPS) tracker stopped moving near the scene of where the collision was reported at 6:30a.m. local time Friday.

The 5,500km (3,400-mile) race began on March 18 in Fremantle, Western Australia, south of Perth.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2017