Matthew Oliveira is in the midst of his breakout season after becoming Bermuda’s rider to beat in the absence of his mentor Dominique Mayho.

With Mayho pursuing his professional cycling dreams with the Jonge Rakkers Vollezele team in Belgium, where he won his first amateur race in Geraardsbergen last week, Oliveira has happily filled the void with a slew of superb displays.

Still only 16, Oliveira reaffirmed his reputation as one of the island’s most promising cyclists after winning his maiden Butterfield Bermuda Grand Prix title last month, lapping the entire field to take the honours in the Hamilton Criterium.

With victories in the Team Tokio Criterium, the Madison Digicel Road Race and Bicycle Works Time-Trial, Oliveira’s rise has been nothing short of meteoric, especially considering he did not win a single adult race last year.

“I definitely feel that I’m starting to improve,” said the Winners Edge rider. “I’ve been doing a lot of swimming and cross-training in the gym to help me.

“I need to be physically bigger than last year to compete. I’m pleased with the way I’ve been racing and it’s a major improvement on last year.”

Competing in the male A division for only his second season, Oliveira’s early-season dominance is not completely unexpected.

He was named last year’s Bermuda Bicycle Association Junior Rider of the Year and won two silver medals in the road race and time-trial at the 2015 Caribbean Cycling Championships in Dominican Republic.

In July he heads to St Lucia for this year’s championships confident of going one better in both disciplines.

“I’ll be racing in the same category [15 to 16] as last year, so hopefully I can try and win gold in both races,” he said.

“Last year I gave the older guys a bit of a shock as they didn’t expect one of the younger people to do so well.

“Maybe this year I will get a shock from one of the younger people and I know it’s going to be difficult.”

Oliveira plans to follow in the slipstream of Mayho, 22, and chase a pro career as well as represent Bermuda at the Commonwealth and Pan Am Games.

The pair have become close friends over the years with Oliveira regularly picking Mayho’s brain regarding training methods and his approach to competitive racing.

“Dominique is the best Bermudian cyclist,” said Oliveira, who is coached by BBA president Peter Dunne.

“We’ve been good friends for a long time. I’m really close to him and I talk to him about everything.

“He always helps me and answers any of my questions.

“He’s started to give me training schedules over the past few months. I want to do what he’s doing and hopefully do it better.”

The Warwick Academy pupil will be eligible to compete at the senior level for Bermuda when he turns 17 and has targeted the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, Australia, in two years’ time.

Before then he hopes to secure a scholarship to a top collegiate cycling programme in the United States, similar to Gabriella Arnold’s at Marian University in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Arnold, 19, became the first Bermudian cyclist to win a cycling scholarship in the summer of 2014.

“I would like to go and do races competitively and represent the island,” Oliveira said.

“I’m looking at the Commonwealth Games and Pan Am Games, and that sort of thing.”

Last month Oliveira was awarded $3,621 to attend both the USA Cycling Development Camp in New York and the Green Mountain Stage Race in Vermont as part of the Ministry of Community, Culture and Sports’s annual National Junior Athlete Sponsorship Programme.

“I think we will be working on mental approach and how to handle your bike at the camp,” he said.