Kaden Hopkins is hopeful his strong showing at the Cycling World Championships can prove a major boost to his burgeoning professional career.

Building on the momentum of an impressive Commonwealth Games, in which he finished eleventh in the Time Trial and fourteenth in the Road Race , the 22-year-old kicked off the championships, in Australia, with a highly respectable 13th in the under-23 Time-Trial, finishing 1min 33.29sec adrift of winner Soren Waerenskjold, of Norway.

For Hopkins, it was reward for his pre-championship preparation which featured three weeks of training at high altitude in Andorra, a tiny, independent principality between France and Spain in the Pyrenees.

“It was a really hard course but I was coming out here in good shape and so I was hoping to put on a good ride. I’m satisfied with what I did,” said Hopkins who improved on his results at last year’s World Championships in Flanders, Belgium, where he finished 48th.

Speaking to the Procycling Net Youtube channel, he added: “I have been to a couple of World Championships before but never in the best shape and coming into this race I did a very specific preparation for it and managed to come here in the shape that I am.

“I had a ride plan that I tried to execute and I think I executed it well. I could not have asked for much more.

“There’s nothing specific in place for the future but I’m hoping after a ride like this that I can definitely go and talk to some teams about my future.”

Hopkins, who rides for Equipo Essax, the elite under-23 team of the Sax Cycling Club, in Spain, will now be aiming to continue his impressive form when he conmpetes in the 169-kilometre road race on Friday.

“I’ve always been good in the Time-Trial, pacing them well and suffering the whole way through them, but I also enjoy road races as well.” added the Bermudian, who finished 97th in last year’s event.