Kaden Hopkins said he produced the “time-trial of his life” as he successfully defended his national title at Clearwater Beach last night.

The 24-year-old stopped the clock at 39mins 3sec after completing the 19.2 mile course, holding off strong competition from Conor White, who finished five seconds behind, and Nicholas Narraway (39:17).

Hopkins was relieved to have retained his crown after a challenging couple of months racing overseas.

“I’m really proud to win it again and this was surely the time-trial of my life in terms of number and speed on this course,’’ Hopkins said.

“It’s the best I’ve ever performed. It’s been a pretty rough start to the season with illness and crashes hampering me the last couple of months.

“I've had a good string of training to build up some level again, and I’m glad to see that I’m flying.

“We all knew this year was going to be really close and I smashed the course record from last year by almost a minute and all of us were within 14 seconds. It just shows the level that we’re going up every year.”

Reflecting on the rivalry between himself, White and Narraway, the champion was pleased to see his team-mates closing the gap from last year.

“It’s been close in the past, but now it’s getting really close,’’ he said.

“Conor and I were 15 seconds apart, but this year it was only five seconds, and then Nic was only eight seconds further back and is getting so much better every year.

“It’s a good sign for us in terms of overseas competition as well. With the potential of us going to the World Championships later this year, it’s a good sign to see that we’re all the fastest we've ever been.”

Despite the defeat, runner-up White was pleased with his performance.

“We knew it was going to be close between us based on last year,” White said.

“Before it was just a few seconds between Kaden and I, but now Nic has caught up, and he’s going to be part of every time-trial we do from now on.

“It’s great to see the three of us getting so much better. Last year and the year before Kaden and I did a very similar time, so we figured we might have found the speed limit on the course, but this year we went a minute faster.

“I did say that cars and traffic might be an issue and it was unfortunately for Nic, who somehow stayed on his bike with a car right in his way.”

Narraway was delighted to finish third and cut the time between him and the top two.

“It feels pretty good to finish third again this year,’’ he said.

“I’m happy to be only eight seconds off Conor and 15 seconds off Kaden, so it was super close.

“I can’t complain about the day, I had a really great time-trial and did more than what was expected.”

Following the withdrawal of last year’s winner, Caitlin Conyers, who was ruled out by sicknesses, the women’s competition became a race against the clock between Liana Medeiros and Panzy Olander.

It was Medeiros, 20, who claimed her first title in 42:13, and she was was grateful to the University of Toronto, which helped her cope with racing in the evening.

“It’s really exciting, but I’m a little sad that Caitlin Conyers couldn’t make it today,’’ Medeiros said.

“It’s great to take the win and what really helped me was coming here with a positive mindset and being excited to race.

“The race was tough with the wind, I definitely started to fade towards the end, but I kept the mindset positive. I kept reassuring myself that I could do it right up to the finish.

“Panzy and I are super close and it’s just great to race against her. We were both cheering each other on before the race to remain positive.

“Last year was really bad for me and I really struggled with racing in the evening. Nutrition wise it’s really different, you’re eating throughout the day instead of just waking up and having your breakfast.

“I’m studying nutrition at university so having that background and experience really helped. Mentally knowing that I've got the nutrition nailed meant it was just me, the bike, the road, and I gave it my all.”

Olander was content with maintaining her position from last year, when she lost out to Conyers.

“I just wanted to be on the podium again and it was definitely less pressure without Caitlin there, but I did the best I could, especially changing my bike from last year,’’ Olander said.

“It was a mental game, just trying to focus on myself and numbers that I had to hit. It was good challenge mentally and obviously physically too.

“I had my own race to execute and I just wanted to try and not let the fact that it was just the two us get into my head too much.”