major competitions like the Commonwealth Games without making the sport a fulltime pursuit, team members told The Royal Gazette yesterday.

Four of Bermuda's best faced a top field of Canadians and Americans at the Mount Tolmie Road Race on Sunday -- and clearly came away second best. Two riders, Dana Henry and Mike Lee, succumbed to the hilly course -- while Carlos Sequeros retired after encountering mechanical problems, and McInnis Looby was lapped by the field but finished the race.

None of the four riders are likely to join Elliott Hubbard on Bermuda's team at the Games here from August 18 to 28.

The 10.7-kilometre Mount Tolmie course -- the Games road racing course -- has long, flat sections, but also features two significant climbs. The steepest, which reached a pitch of 13 percent just before the Mount Tolmie summit, had to be climbed 15 times by the riders.

While the hearts of Bermuda's riders were willing, their legs and backs were not. "Our races in Bermuda are nice, but they don't compare to this quality of race,'' Sequeros said. "But we just don't have the money to get off the Island every weekend for top competitions. At this level, most riders are on full sponsorship -- they have no job, and they train fulltime. We have to balance work and training -- and can't afford to leave the Island often enough to get the competition we need.'' "We've got to begin spending more time abroad before we try to qualify for events like the Commonwealth Games,'' Lee said. "Then, if we qualify, we have to get decent preparation for the Games themselves. There's no sense coming to the Commonwealth Games and getting bad results.'' Said Henry: "To get ready for a course like Sunday's, we really need to go abroad for three months to get used to the speed, and get used to the hills.

Then, if we qualified for the Games, we'd have to go away to some place harder.'' Coach Joseph Richardson went even further than his riders. "For us to compete at this level, we need to do what Elliott Hubbard has done -- move to France and ride competitively fulltime. To ride at this level, it must be a fulltime situation. You can't work eight hours a day and compete at this level.'' All agreed that the support of Bermuda's corporate community would help ease the financial load that accompanies travel to international events. The trip to Victoria cost each man approximately $1,200. "For most businesses, that's not much,'' Sequeros said. "But it goes past that. We need to select a team, put it on full sponsorship and send it away for a couple of months.'' Even more importantly, the cyclists said they need proper coaching so that good results can be obtained internationally.

"We need more money and more training, and we also need a coach,'' Sequeros said. "Most times we train by ourselves, and we train according to how we feel -- and that's not the way you're supposed to do it. We need someone who knows the sport, who has been in it and can help us.'' Said Lee: "We all do our individual thing -- we need some coaching, we need some advice.''