BERMUDA Bicycle Association officials could be forgiven if they felt someone within the world governing body held a grudge against them.

For the second time in the space of a couple of years, the sport's hierarchy, Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), have come up with a ruling that has effectively torpedoed Bermuda's efforts at a major international festival.

Former professional Elliot Hubbard was the UCI's first victim, cruelly denied a place in the Sydney Olympics through an inequitable qualifying system imposed by the Union.

As a category two professional, Hubbard was deemed ineligible for the World B Cycling Championships, even though that was the only avenue through which he could qualify for the Games.

Now this week it was the turn of Geri Mewett _ along with Kris Hedges the best Bermudian cyclist to emerge since Hubbard _ to feel the brunt of the UCI's seemingly unfair and arbitrary regulations.

Having trained relentlessly over the last year in preparation for next week's World B Championships in China, Mewett was told on Wednesday, just two days before departure, his entry would have to be scrapped. That, despite the fact that the entry had been registered and formally accepted more than two months ago.

His crime?

Under amended UCI rules, like Hubbard, he was considered too good.

Effectively that was exactly what the men who run the sport were saying when they decreed that as a member of a US category three team affiliated to UCI, Mewett was of a standard too high to compete in the World Bs.

What they obviously didn't take into consideration was that, as a rider for De Feet/LeMonde in Tennessee, the young Bermudian competes purely as an amateur and has to scrimp and save in part-time bar jobs in order finance his passion.

Yes, one day, just like Hubbard, he would dearly like to turn pro and have his chance at competing with the world's elite. And his best chance of eventually making that standard would be by gradually climbing the ladder of experience through events such as that being hosted next week in China.

No doubt there are others in the same boat as Mewett, denied the opportunity to compete by their own burning desire to improve.

Mewett joined De Feet/Le Monde because he wanted to ride with and learn from America's best. But it's a decision which, this week at least, has come at a cost.

Sadly, the UCI would appear to be sending out a bizarre message to small countries like Bermuda where the sport has positively boomed in recent years.

Rather than encourage wider international participation, as one would expect from a governing body, their actions are having the opposite effect.

For every bold step forward taken by Bermuda Bicycle Association, the UCI seem to be doing their best to impose two steps backward.

A slight exaggeration, perhaps. But certainly national coach Greg Hopkins, his fellow administrators and the riders themselves must all becoming exasperated with the red tape which has repeatedly thwarted their efforts overseas.

As Hopkins noted, once rules are enforced there's no going back, no right of appeal.

The UCI aren't known for their flexibility.

Nor, it would seem, their sense of fair play.

_ ADRIAN ROBSON