Kaden Hopkins enjoyed an encouraging start in the Tour of Guadeloupe, placing third in the 4.7-kilometre time trial on Friday before twice overcoming bike problems to finish 15th in the stage two 147 kilometre road race yesterday.

Hopkins clocked a time of 3hr 31mins 03secs to finish just over seven minutes behind stage winner Mickael Guichard of Team Pro Immo. Hopkins is competing for the Dominican Republic team, Inteja, in the 1,200-kilometre event which concludes on Sunday.

“It was probably one of the best days I’ve had on a bike in a race but at the same time I had some really bad luck today,” Hopkins said of yesterday’s road race.

“I was in the breakaway for the first 125km of the race and then my bike malfunctioned with 20km to go.

“I had to get on a spare bike and chase all the way to the finish. I am still happy with the 15th-place finish but it was a day of bad luck for me.

“On the spare bike the pedal ended up coming off, so I had to get back on my bike and it was hard to ride. I was alone for the last 20km, but the bulk of the breakaway that I was with I was only about four minutes behind them.”

Hopkins is hoping to put in some good performances in the road races this week with racing scheduled for every day as the cyclists compete over ten stages.

“I’m happy with how the legs felt, so over the next couple of days I’ll definitely try to go for more again and, hopefully, with some better luck I can get a better result than that,” he added.

“One of my main focuses for this will be the time trial on the ninth stage, so in the next couple of days I’ll try not to lose any more time and if I have the opportunity to get in another breakaway.“

Today will see a 150km race with more climbs as the riders look forward to a challenging week of competition.

“Now it’s all road races until the ninth stage,” Hopkins said. “It’s a long race, we’re still in the early days of it and a lot can change.

“I’m happy with the form I have right now and hopefully I can build on it in the next couple of days.”