Kaden Hopkins has won a bronze medal for Bermuda at the PanAmerican Cycling Championships in Panama.

Competing alongside compatriot Connor White in the 38.4km Men’s Elite Individual Time-Trial, Hopkins finished third in a time of 50min 3sec, a little more than two minutes behind the Colombian pair of Walter Alejan Vargas and Miguel Angel Lopez.

To put Hopkins’s performance in perspective, runner-up Lopez has multiple grand tour wins under his belt, including a Tour de France stage win in 2020, three Vuelta de España stage wins and has picked up stages in the Tour de Suisse 2016, Volta a Catalunya 2019, Vuelta a Andalucia 2021 and Vuelta a San Juan 2023.

White also produced a decent performance to finish sixth in a time of 51:42 with the Bermudians’ impressive displays enough to secure two qualifying spots for the Pan Am Games in Santiago, Chile, later this year, when they will get a chance to qualify for the Paris Olympics.

Also in action in Panama was Caitlin Conyers, who finished eleventh in the Elite Women’s Time-Trial.

Conyers completed the 25.6km course in a time of 38:36.35 and was competing against a stellar field with bronze-medal winner Alison Jackson having been successful in one of the toughest and most prestigious races in world cycling, Paris-Roubaix, just last week. The winner of the Time-Trial, Amber Neman, finished fifth in the last Olympics.

Liam Flannery and Nic Narraway represented the island in the 38.4km Under-23 PanAmerican Individual Time Trial, with Flannery finishing tenth behind Hector Quintana of Chile. Narraway finished sixteenth.

Flannery and Narraway are next in action in the under-23 Road Race on Saturday, with Conyers joined by Gabby Arnold in the Elite Women’s Road Race on the same day.

Hopkins and White will contest the Men’s Elite Road Race on Sunday.