this year's Killington Stage Race along with a bevy of other local riders.

Speaking from his base in Knoxville, Tennessee the 26-year-old, who rides for amateur team DeFeet, explained that he will instead make the short jaunt to Atlanta for the US 10K Classic, a 100-kilometre road race.

`Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to go to (Vermont). I just can't afford it, basically,'' said Mewett, who has rapidly made his mark in the discipline after first gaining prominence as a swimmer.

"I took a lot of time off in July to go to Wisconsin and race for two weeks and then went to Ohio and raced for 10 days.

"I did real well and was pretty happy, but since then I've been back working like a fool to get my rent paid and other things done so that I can come down for the Grand Prix.'' Mewett, who works as a waiter at a Knoxville eatery, expressed disappointment at not being able to link up with the likes of fellow Bermudians Elliott Hubbard, Greg Hopkins' Winners Edge team and others, especially as Killington was a race he had eyed from the beginning of the season. Still, he took solace in the fact that he had performed well while in Wisconsin and Ohio, where he competed in more than 12 races -- road races and criteriums -- counting places of second, two fourths, a 10th, 12th and two 15ths among his results.

"Last year I went out and finished the races, but I didn't get any money or get many good results, so what I did this time were good confidence boosters and go along with the way my season's gone,'' explained Mewett, the son of former Marathon Derby queen Sandra Mewett. "I've had a really good year with some good results up until now.

"I started off the year knowing I had a lot of work to do to get to where I wanted to be and made a lot of progress, which is encouraging.'' Meanwhile, Bermudians will get the chance to witness the prowess of Mewett up close and personal next month during the Grand Prix, which will also involve Hubbard and several other overseas outfits.

Apart from having a desire to turn professional Mewett also has a yearning for the Olympic stage, a stage he has experienced before in a different sport, having previously appeared at the Barcelona Games in 1992 as a precocious 17-year-old sprint freestylist.

"Long term I'd like to make the Olympics again. Since I went in '92 it's been a goal of mine to get back there,'' said Mewett, due to marry college sweetheart Maureen Ferris next year.

"I got real close this year in Uruguay. Things didn't really work out at the end of the day, but it's definitely a realistic goal.

If he does make it back he will owe a great deal to the fact that he was a competitive swimmer and was instilled with sense of discipline and mental focus as a result.

Said Mewett: "The biggest thing for me has been the mental focus that they both require.

"Swimming is a real mental sport, where you have to be able to focus and kind of isolate yourself, see what you need to do and make sure you get there.

"With cycling a lot more is left to chance in that you may get a flat tyre or have somebody crash into you, but when the going gets tough you have to be able to grit your teeth and stick in there and make it through. And that's one area where swimming has helped me, it's given me the ability to do that, to focus and ignore the outside stuff.''