Four junior members from the Bermuda Bicycle Association (BBA) are invading Barbados next week to represent the Island in the Junior Caribbean Championships.

It was postponed earlier this month due to the effects of Hurricane Dean, which ravaged parts of the Caribbean two weeks ago. However, this has given team Bermuda time to get in additional training before the September 8-9 event.

"We have a very strong group of guys," said Peter Dunne, president of the Bermuda Bicycling Association. "At their ages, they're continuing to develop and some on our squad have a little bit of experience in international cycling events." The team consists of Phillip Woolridge in the 15-16 category, and Tim Fox, Thomas Godfrey and Aaron Place, all in the 17-18 group.

"The courses in Barbados don't look all that difficult, no more difficult than what we've raced on here in Bermuda.

"From that standpoint I think that the guys are well prepared and they've been training for many months for this event.

"Greg Hopkins from Winner's Edge has been taking the riders out every week in apart of their training." The course in Barbados will be about 40 miles long, however team Bermuda have nothing to fear, Dunne explained. "These guys (the Bermuda squad) have done 40 miles here, not to brush it off, but as with any level of completion, the faster you go, the harder it is.

"But our guys are really fit as well as those larger nations, which are bound to have a bigger population to choose from, such as Jamaica and Cuba for example." Bermuda has no participants in the girls' division.

Day one of the tournament will see a time trial in which each individual must race on a course alone to see who can beat the clock and the second day will be a general road race.

The four selected to represent the Island had to meet certain qualifying standards and around 20 countries throughout the region will converge for the event. It's only the second year that Bermuda's junior squad has competed in The Caribbean Championships. Dunne as well as Neil de ste Croix, team manager, will accompany the youth, when they leave next Thursday.

When asked to compare the sport of cycling in Bermuda to more dominant sports such as cricket and football, Dunne added: "Certainly there's no question that cycling in Bermuda is more of a fringe sport than football and cricket.

"And there's nothing that we can do about that. But, our 2007 male athlete of the year is Bermudian Tyler Butterfield, who's a professional cyclist in addition to an excellent tri-athlete.

"We've had great cyclists from Bermuda, like Elliot Hubbard, who have a wealth of experience of participating in elite international events. We're proud of that."