Bermuda’s top cyclists are heading into the Central American and Caribbean Games time-trial on Saturday off the back of very different seasons.

Nicholas Narraway has carried all before him in the national championships, winning both the time-trial and road race and has produced a string of fine performances but for Kaden Hopkins it has been a season of frustration.

Ahead of the time-trial, which takes place over 40km in Santo Domingo, Narraway is full of confidence, with Bermuda now regularly picking up medals at regional level.

“The form going into this event is good after a successful national championships and then having the opportunity to race Sibiu tour in Romania, so I think the legs are definitely there,” he said.

“I just have to hope it comes together on the day of the event and everything goes smoothly.

“There’s definitely an expectation on me as a national champion to perform well at these big events, especially with Bermuda’s history in the time-trial in the region. But to be honest the pressure and expectations I put on myself are usually higher than what others put on me.

“Kaden and I are confident going into this event and we are much faster now in the time-trial than we were at Pan American Championships earlier this year, let alone the previous CAC a couple years ago.

“We definitely believe the leaps made in performance and aerodynamics should give us a really good chance at the medal spots.”

Kaden Hopkins is a past CAC Games medal winner in the Road Race but his season has stuttered after he needed surgery on a broken collarbone just weeks before the start of the European cycling season.

He has struggled to find his rhythm since, admitting the misfortune took a significant mental toll.

“I’ve had a pretty rough year so far but my goal after national championships was to have a bit of a mental reset to prepare for the second half of the season,” he said.

“With the crashes that I’ve had and the sicknesses that I’ve had, it’s felt like I was just playing catch up all year.

“I’m not going to act like I’m the only one as everybody goes through their bad times but it’s been a tough year mentally. It’s always tough physically but this year has just been back-to-back disappointments.

“I thought I was in some of my best shape ever in February and then broke my collarbone at the end of my training camp. I was able to get back pretty quickly but in my next race I then had another really bad crash, which did basically both of my knees in.

“That put me out for longer than the collarbone did because the injury was my legs and I couldn’t even ride my bike for a while and then during that time off the bike, I also got sick, so it was just multiple hits in a row.

“At the level I’m racing at this year, I knew this year was going to be the hardest I’ve ever done. You have to be in shape in those races if you want to do anything.”

But Hopkins is keen to look forward and is hopeful that his year can turn around with a good performance in Dominican Republic.

“I’ve had an amazing three weeks of training and I'm feeling super good and super ready for the CAC Games,” he said.

“As I’ve said it's been a disappointing year and it's been hard mentally but I definitely feel like I've had that reset now.

“I’ve had a good amount of training, a good block with my family and my friends and I have reset and felt motivated.”