It must feel amazing to be so good at something that you can qualify for a world championships in a new discipline at your first attempt.

Bermudian cyclist Conor White has done exactly that and is preparing for a whirlwind few weeks after he secured a spot at the Gravel World Championships when finishing in the top 25 in his first shot at the event last week.

The 24-year-old, who won a bronze medal in the road time-trial at the Pan American Games in Chile in October, is thrilled to have qualified for the championships, which will be held in Belgium in the first week of October, after making the decision to give gravel racing a try after years of success in other disciplines.

“I bought myself a gravel bike a couple of weeks ago because I’d been wanting to do a bit of gravel racing,” White said.

“It’s a cool discipline, like a mix of mountain biking and road biking, and I just wanted to give it a go.

“I got myself a frame to build up and then a couple of my friends out here in Spain were going to a race in Sweden and I went to join them. It was a three-day stage race and stage two was a qualification event for the World Championships and you had to finish in the top 25 per cent. It was my first race and I managed to finish in the first quarter and qualify.

“There was 100 people in the field and I knew some of the names. There were former World Tour pros and cyclocross pros. I didn’t put an expectation to qualify but I knew it was possible. I knew I was strong enough to ride at that level, it was just that it was a new discipline, more dynamic and I didn’t know what to expect so there was no pressure on me.”

There is a vast difference between racing on smooth roads and the challenge posed by racing on gravel and the thrill of qualifying for a world championships was quickly followed by a spill in his next race

“Every course in gravel racing can be completely different,”White said.

“In a race on Saturday, there was paved sections, smooth gravel sections and really rocky downhills that you could barely see where you were going as your body was rattling so much,” White said.

“You have to be switched on the whole time because you are watching out for obstacles, such as tree roots, rocks and mud and I crashed in a muddy section on Saturday.

“I was behind someone trying to follow his line and couldn’t really see where I was going, but I hit a thick mud patch and just fell off. I didn’t hurt myself but it is that easy to fall.

“I still enjoy road racing but this is different and It seems as if people are enjoying themselves a bit more and it’s a lot more dynamic, it’s not just about your fitness and tactics, but you have to be able to navigate the courses.

Getting flat tyres and mechanical issues is a big part of the racing. On Saturday, as we went through the first downhill section we must have passed five people in the first five minutes with a flat tyre. Just making it through these courses is difficult and you need a lot of luck.“

Just a couple of weeks before the Gravel World Championships, White will represent Bermuda alongside Kaden Hopkins and Nicholas Narraway at the Road Racing World Championships in Zurich, Switzerland.

White is competing in the elite class for the first time at the event and will be competing against three times Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel, who became the first rider to win the road race and time-trial at the same Olympics in Paris this year.

““It could potentially be three weeks in a row of world championships, which would be pretty cool,” White said.

“As far as the racing goes this will be my first year doing the elite championships so I’ll be racing against Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel and it doesn’t get any better than that.

“Going to worlds against those guys, realistically you’re not going to be fighting for the win. It’s cool to race against the best in the world but we are not there to be fanboying them. We are there to be competitive and if you do well it shows what us guys from Bermuda can do on the world stage.”