Cycling champion MacIntyre killed

LONDON (Reuters) - Time trial cycling champion Jason MacIntyre was killed on Tuesday after being knocked off his bike by a van while training in Scotland.

The 34-year-old, a 25-mile time trial champion and Commonwealth Games competitor, died after the collision near his home in Fort William, northern Scotland, Northern Constabulary said in a statement.

MacIntyre was airlifted from the scene but died on his way to hospital in Glasgow.

MacIntyre, at the peak of his form after a great 2007 campaign, was hoping to make the Olympic team and his death came a day after he had been given funding to train for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

Last year MacIntyre broke the 10-year-old Scottish 10-mile time-trial record held by former world record-holder Graeme Obree.

"He was the best road cyclist in Scotland and as good as anyone in Britain. He was in the prime of his career," Bryan Smith, a former Scotland manager and Olympic rider told The Herald newspaper.

"Jason was good when he was young but achieved a serious breakthrough in later life - a bit like Obree."

Scottish World and Commonwealth cycling champion Craig MacLean added: "It's tragic. I think Jason was being considered for the Olympic squad in Beijing later this year and that would have been the pinnacle of his career."

(Writing by Mitch Phillips, editing by Trevor Huggins)