professionals and Category I and II riders for this week's Bermuda Grand Prix.

No reason was given by national coach Greg Hopkins and Looby could not be contacted yesterday. But it is understood the cyclist suffered an injury while playing cricket for Young Men's Social Club on Sunday.

Looby, pushing for a spot on Bermuda Commonwealth Games team, was expected to team with Steve Sterritt and two others as the national team went head-to-head with some of the top professionals in the world.

Instead, he will ride in the secondary races with a Category III team of Carlos DeSilva, Jason Krupp, Ian Lilley and Tim Palmer.

Hopkins confirmed that the Category I and II team would now contain just three riders, Mike Lee, Steve Sterritt and Kevin Topple.

The four-day, $20,000 competition begins on Thursday with the Conyers, Dill and Pearman Classic in Hamilton.

A total of eight visiting teams -- the first of which arrived yesterday -- will compete in the professional field. Three of those -- Saturn, 1997 winners Shaklee, and Elliot Hubbard's New Jersey Navigators -- are among the top five ranked teams in the United States.

Hubbard and some of his team-mates arrived yesterday and the other teams will arrive today and tomorrow. Other overseas teams include Hubbard's former One Plus Inc., Snow Valley, the Canadian National team and a team from Britain.

Up and comers Tyler Butterfield, Jonathan Herring and Nuri Latham will compete in the junior category against some top young cyclists from overseas.

Hopkins, Jeff Payne and Mel Bennett qualified to compete for Bermuda in the veterans category while Melanie Claude will be the lone local female rider.

She will be up against two professional women who are rated in the top 10 in the US.

Sterritt will be the only Bermuda rider in the Front Street race on Thursday evening, a 55-minute hour, plus one lap event which will involve all the pros plus some of the Category I and II riders.

The race is not part of the Grand Prix proper and does not count towards accumulated times in the stage races over the next three days.

Friday will see the time trial at Southside in St. David's and Saturday will see the main road races of up to 75 miles before the riders head back to Hamilton on Sunday for a criterium.

Hopkins is confident the Bermuda riders will handle themselves well.

"They have been working very hard together, the morale is high in the new national squad. It's obviously early stages so it will be a learning experience for us.

"They're up against it and it's an awesome task to see them riding against the calibre of field that's been assembled this year. I'm sure they are going to acquit themselves very well.''