Mountain bike rider Robin Horsfield is delighted to make his maiden appearance at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Dominican Republic on Saturday.

The Bermudian national champion is going up against competitors from Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the host nation.

“I’m excited to be here,” Horsfield said.

“It’s a big milestone in my career and Dominican Republic has put together a great course for us to race on. My season thus far has been going well and I am relying on that to sustain me in this race.”

Drawing confidence from the display of Kaden Hopkins and Nicholas Narraway, who both secured impressive top-six finishes in the men’s individual time-trial, Horsfield wants to maintain that trajectory.

“Kaden and Nick both achieved strong results in the time-trial, so I’d like to continue that trend,” he said.

“I arrived on Wednesday and all riders had a feel of the course on Thursday, checking out the many features they have built. Final preparation is done now and all that is left to do is to go as fast as possible.”

The Canada rider secured qualification for the CAC Games when finishing eighth overall at the Caribbean Mountain Bike Championships a year ago at the same venue.

“Every racecourse is quite different so you can’t really compare,” the 26-year-old said.

“I raced this course last year at the Caribbean Championships and they have added quite a lot to it since which has improved it.”