A motorcyclist was killed Thursday during a training run as part of the Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, the second biker killed in the race in as many years.

Race officials identified the man as Carl Sorensen, 39, of Centennial.

“It’s a very sad day,” Tom Osborne, chairman of the board that oversees the race, said at an afternoon news conference.

He added: “(Sorensen’s) wife said he loved the Hill Climb.”

The Gazette reported Sorensen went off the Pikes Peak Highway over a cliff between Devil’s Playground and the peak’s 14,115-foot summit just before 9 a.m. Sorensen is shown participating in the Hill Climb in Vimeo videos posted in 2014 and 2012.

“Throughout the 92 years that this unique race has been conducted on America’s Mountain, we have experienced the ultimate joy in triumph, the disappointment of failure and now the unexpected heartbreak of the loss of a competitor,” race officials said in a statement. “We mourn the tragic death of Carlton, and he will be in all of our hearts this Sunday for the 93rd Race to the Clouds.”

Sorensen is the sixth racer to die in the history of the event.

Last year, 54-year-old motorcyclist Bobby Goodin died racing in the Hill Climb after crashing on the mountain’s summit.

About three hours after Thursday’s crash, six people and one vehicle were struck by lightning on Pikes Peak, said Jacqueline Kirby, a sheriff’s office spokeswoman.

Kirby said it wasn’t clear if, or how, the six were connected with the race.

Five of those struck were cleared at the scene, while one person was being treated further, Kirby said.

“I don’t know the extent of the injuries,” she said.

The Hill Climb draws hundreds of competitors and thousands of fans from around the world for a day of racing up the eastern-most 14,000-foot mountain in the country.

Racing takes place on a course that spans more than 12 miles and rises nearly 5,000 vertical feet on the highway to the mountain’s summit.

The Hill Climb includes motorcycle, quad, car and truck divisions.

Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JesseAPaul