Kaden Hopkins edged defending champion and Winners Edge team-mate Matthew Oliveira by four one-thousandths of a second in the road race of the Butterfield Bermuda Grand Prix at Southside today.

Hopkins, who recorded the fastest time in the hill climb last night in St George’s when he clocked 45.373 seconds, finished the second stage race in a time of 1hr 41min 35.341 seconds while Oliveira finished in 1:41.35.345. The pair were part of a lead pack of three that included another team-mate, Darren Glasford, who was five seconds behind the pair in 1:41.40.539.

The trio made their break in the second of the five laps and maintained a comfortable lead over the other A class riders before the two 17-year-olds broke away for a srint to the finish line. Glasford observed the sprint from a few yards back, opting not to go with them as part of a team strategy.

“Because they did most of the work I wasn’t going to try to sprint them for the finish, that would have been unfair, unsportmanlike,” Glasford said. “I just let them go and sprint it out.

“The race continues tomorrow with a crit and both of those guys are massively strong. It’s their race to lose but I’m still in it and will fight all the way. Hopefully my other teammates will be able to help me out tomorrow because we’ve got a massive gap on the rest of the field.”

Glasford added: “Winners Edge has nine guys in the race and we split the team up into three individual teams so we’re racing against each other. Matthew and Kaden are on the same team and they are the two strongest riders.

“We had a race strategy that we had guys we had to follow and mark and when those guys [Hopkins and Oliveira] went for the break I went with them. Once that gap was established it was about managing my effort to stay with them because they are very, very strong.

“They still have a few second on me but the race is not over but, again, they are the two strongest riders in the field so we have our work cut out for us.”

Fourth, more than two and a half minutes behind Glasford, was Alan Mooney in 1:44.27.769, narrowly beating out Conor White in 1:44.27.957.

There was excitement, too, in the women’s race where Ashley Estwanik got a stage win with her strong performance. She finished the shorter women’s race in 1:04.45.552, 25 seconds ahead of Sarah Bonnett in 1:05.10.343 while Nicole Mitchell finished fourth in 1:05.11.970.

Former champion Zoenique Williams was fourth in 1:05.12.003 while Alyssa Rowse, the defending champion, completed the top five, clocking 1:05.12.095.

Male B winner was McQuinn Burch in 1:23.05.564, five seconds ahead of Dominic White, with Gary Raynor a further second behind in third place.

Jasmin Hasselkuss and Black Oliveira were the 12-and-under winners while Megan Hands and Caleb Ingham wn their 13-16 races.