Dominique Mayho, Bermuda’s top cyclist, has ramped up his preparations for his first full season of semi-professional racing in Belgium.

The NatWest Island Games and Junior Caribbean Cycling Championships gold medal-winner is among a group of Winner’s Edge cyclists in Florida whipping themselves into shape for the upcoming season.

Peter Dunne, the Bermuda Bicycle Association president, said it was a good opportunity for Mayho to focus on his training without the distractions of being in Bermuda.

“It’s an opportunity to get away for a week of base training and focus on building on big endurance and putting in a lot of big miles, which is easier to do when you’re away from the pressures of home,” Dunne said.

“This [training camp] allows them to begin a big build for their 2016 campaigns and they have done this for a couple of years.”

Other top Winner’s Edge cyclists taking part in the training exercise include Darren Glasford and Zoenique Williams, the multiple Caribbean Cycling Championships medal winners.

Mayho took another step towards his dream of racing professionally after joining Jonge Rakkers Vollezele, in Belgium, where he will compete in the club’s elite team from April to September.

The 22-year-old is already familiar with the terrain having competed in a few races in the European country as an amateur last year.

“He [Mayho] plans to go there for a longer stint this year, which is a good thing,” Dunne said.

“I think the volume of racing exposure that he will get in Belgium is greater than he would get if he was with the team in Canada who he was with last year. In Belgium there’s just much more racing going on week in and week out.

“The whole point of going is to grow and get better and to be a better racer you need to be racing more and I think the structure in Belgium is also better.

“A very active season is geographically very close to where he’s going to be living and that’s better.

“In the States if you want to do big races you have to go from California one week to Mexico, Texas to Vermont and so you’re talking thousands of miles travelling. In Belgium and the immediate area you can do all that.

“It’s just a better experience I think for him and he said that he enjoys that style of racing more, so that’s a good thing.”

The domestic road season starts on March 6 with a team time-trial.