He finished eighth in the one kilometre time trial at this year's national championships after just three weeks training and believes he can improve on that next season.

"If you're prepared to put a lot of dedication and commitment into it and you've got the talent, then I think you've got a very, very good chance of getting into the British squad," he said.

The 24-year-old certainly has the talent.

He powered his way in the country's top 20 before interrupting his cycling career with four years at university.

After completing his course, he landed a job with ICI and moved across the Atlantic, working in Toronto and Missouri.

He entered 25 races in the States, winning 19 of them - including the prestigious Arkansas State Criterion Championship in 1996.

Since returning to Britain he has competed regularly in open events and now rides for Lease Direct, a team based in the North West.

Lee, who spends much of his time at his partner's house in Davenham, has already won 10 events this year, often against fields of as many as 200 riders.

Now he is aiming to concentrate on pursuit racing, made famous by Chris Boardman, and, of course, 1km time trials.

Among his latest successes were victories at Ormskirk, where he was just 29 seconds outside Boardman's course record time, and over the Broxton circuit where he beat riders recently back from the Commonwealth Games.

"I'm taking this very seriously," he said.

"My coach is Simon Doughty, who lives in Moulton, and I've booked him for the next 12 months.

"If I can get into the squad the next big things to look at will be the Olympics in Sydney and then the Commonwealth Games in Manchester."

The Commonwealth venue is fitting. Lee plans to spend much of his training time at the city's purpose-built velodrome.

But travel and track hire doesn't come cheap. Luckily ICI, who he still works for, stepped in with a substantial grant. "I'm totally determined in what I'm doing," added Lee. "I've secured the financial backing I need and the results I've had over the past two months have shown the cycling world that I'm up there with the best in the world - people who have just come back from the Commonwealth Games.

"That has given me a lot of encouragement."

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.