Bermuda’s cyclists are riding high as they prepare to get their Pan American Games campaign under way on Sunday.

First up for Conor White, one of Bermuda’s flag-bearers at the opening ceremony, and Kaden Hopkins is the time-trial around the streets of Santiago, with the compatriots hopeful of producing similar performances to those which brought gold and silver medals respectively at the Caribbean Championships last week.

“It’s been close between us all year,” White said. “We’ve each won two time-trials against each other this year. At this point between us it’s just down to who has the better day. The real surprise in that was Nic [Narraway]. He’s never been that close to us before especially when we’ve had pretty good days.”

White has been keeping the legs ticking over since arriving in Chile at the start of the week and is pleased with his form in advance of his toughest test of the season.

“It’s definitely going to be hard as there are some really strong guys in the race,” he said.

“Training has been going well, I’ve been pretty consistent this year and since we have been in Chile, we’ve just done a final few training rides to get ready for the road race next weekend and this weekend for the time-trial. It’s been going as good as it can and we’re going to be able to hold our own and do pretty well

Hopkins and White have created a credible domestic rivalry and are able to set their competitive juices aside when it comes to representing Bermuda.

“We’ve always been rivals against each other,” Hopkins said.

“We’ve also been team-mates at a point, but we’ve always been more rivals than team-mates. However, every time we come to these events, we’re here as a team. We are against each other, but it’s more here trying to work together and it’s easier to be doing things working together than working against each other.”

The young rider is quietly confident of turning around the result from the Caribbean Championships given that conditions may be more in his favour this time around.

“I think my form is good and I’m definitely feeling better here,” Hopkins said.

“Last week in Guadeloupe and flying in from Europe only a day in advance, there was no time to get over the jetlag or anything like that and then coming from cooler conditions into the heat we had there was pretty brutal.

“We’ve been out for a few rides in Chile and I’m feeling good and looking forward to it. Our goal is to go out in the time-trial and do as best as we can. We have had a look at the time-trial course and I’m really feeling good for it.

Next week’s road race will give the guys the opportunity to test themselves against the best around with the field containing Richard Carapaz, the reigning Olympic champion in the discipline and Hopkins is looking forward to the race.

“He’s for sure the favourite in that event but we’ve raced against riders at that level before,” Hopkins said.

“When we raced at the Commonwealth Games last year and both did well in the time-trial, I was able to be in a break with a bunch of riders at that level in the road race.”