Stewart, who link with the Nero Continental team late last year, finished second to long-time rival Tom Bolton in the under-23 race at the weekend's state criterium championships in Sydney.

He has set himself to go a couple better at the state open road championships at Gunning next weekend.

Stewart said keeping fit and racking up the kilometres without many races to look forward to due to the coronavirus pandemic has been tough mentally.

"It has been hard to get motivation because there hasn't been much to train for. I think a few guys have had some time off," he said.

"The last two months or so I've been full steam ahead to try and get ready for next year, and the end of this year.

"You've got to stay fit because you never know what's around the corner. If they ease restrictions more racing will be going on, you just have to be ready.

"I hope I can put myself in a position to try and win it (state road race) but we'll have to see what pans out on the day."

Dulwich Hill's Bolton and Canberra's Tom Chester joined Stewart in an early breakaway during the criterium, with the main group unable to bridge the gap.

Stewart pushed Bolton hard, but couldn't bridge the gap in a tough sprint finish.

"Bolton is probably my main rival (in the road race) and there's a couple of other guys. Tom's a good sprinter and he's strong, we're pretty similar riders really," Stewart said.

"The crit was a good motivator, it got postponed a couple of times and I came fifth last year, so I really wanted to try and win that.

"Bolton and I fought it out in the sprint and he just got over me, I just left my run a bit too late."

Stewart said joining Nero Continental had greatly improved his development.

"It's a great team atmosphere and I get great support from the guys who run it," Stewart said.

"I had a rough start to the year which didn't go to plan, but I'm starting to get some good results and hopefully I can springboard that into the road race in a couple of weeks."

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