Dominique Mayho and Darren Glasford will both miss this weekend’s three-day Butterfield Bermuda Grand Prix which begins this evening with the Hill Climb in St George’s.

Both Mayho and Glasford are competing overseas this weekend, leaving the Male A category a little more open. Some 113 riders have signed up for the races, including 20 in the A category, 49 in the Male B and 16 women competitors. There are also 28 juniors in two age groups.

The most competitive category is likely to be the Male B class where the winner could come from any number of riders, while the increase in the women’s field shows a continued growth in popularity. In the women’s category, Gabriella Arnold will be a contender, although Nicole Mitchell will be a strong favourite, especially in the absence of Zoenique Williams who is also racing overseas.

Today’s time-trial hill climb in St George’s will start at 6pm with the first riders and followed by riders every 30 seconds.

Tomorrow, the competitors will be at Southside, St David’s, for a 7.45am start to the road race. The Male A riders will do five laps of the course (approximately 64km) while the Male B and women will do four laps of the course (51.2km), though the women will do an 8.8km lap course, as will the 13-16 juniors.

The races will start on Cooper’s Island Road and take the riders to Tommy Fox Road, Kindley Field Road and back east on St David’s Road before turning right at Clearwater School and back on to Tommy Fox Road to Cooper’s Island Road.

In stage three on Sunday, the action switches to Hamilton where the criterium will begin at 9am with the junior races, 9.25am for the 13-16 juniors and female races and 10.05am and 10.55am for the Male B and Male A races.

Male A will do 60 minutes plus one lap, Male B 40 minutes plus one lap and the women and junior males 13-16 30 minutes plus one lap. The 13-16 females will do 20 minutes plus one lap. Because of the repaving of Reid Street west, the traditional circuit is not available.

Riders will instead travel west on Front Street to the Birdcage and perform a u-turn before riding east on Front Street and then left up Burnaby Hill and right onto Reid Street. They will then turn right on to Court Street and then right on to Front Street. For the fifth straight year, the Bank of NT Butterfield is the title sponsor, contributing $10,000 to the prize money.