Elliot Hubbard enjoyed the taste of success on Monday when his team finished tops among the amateurs at the Killington Stage Race seri es in Vermont.

The 22-year-old cyclist, who had to interrupt his stay in Vermont to return home for his sister's wedding, wasn't nearly in the form that he was in when he represented Bermuda in Atlanta, yet he performed well enough to finish 26th overall out of 120 riders.

However one of the highlights -- other than helping his team take the amateur honours and finish sixth overall out of 20 teams -- was to have three riders from One Plus team finish in the top 50, including Kyle Smith, who placed third in the criterium.

Hubbard, who was the first amateur a year ago when he placed fifth overall, attributed his lower finish this year to lack of race conditioning.

"My fitness was a little below par, it doesn't take long to lose your edge in cycling if you haven't been that busy. I definitely wasn't peaking for this event, my fitness could have been a bit better,'' Hubbard said yesterday.

"I didn't have as good a buildup to this race as I did last year. I skipped a couple of stages races, had to return home for a short period, and it was a much stronger field this year with the course itself being much more difficult.'' But the Bermudian was more thrilled by the performance of his team since they not only beat off other amateurs but also mastered a few prominent professional teams.

"Overall I thought we did pretty good. The course was extremely tough and I think we did okay considering the limited buildup and the outstanding quality of the field.'' Plus One will now resume their racing in the Pennsylvania areas during the next two weeks with no real big events on the cards with the season actually winding down as the cooler weather approaches.