Kaden Hopkins held off the challenge of Nicholas Narraway and Conor White to win the President’s Cup cycling race yesterday.

Hopkins, 23, was part of a large group, which led from the start of the 56-mile race, but that was reduced to four in the latter stages before Alexander Miller fell out, leaving Hopkins to beat Narraway and White to the finish line in 2hr 20min 18sec.

It was the first time that Hopkins had won the annual race and he was pleased with the ride.

“It feels good to win the race as none of us are really back into training properly,’’ Hopkins said.

“We've only come out of our off-season, so today was a pretty hard race but it was good. I enjoyed it, we had a lot of people out and everyone was out there to race, so I really enjoyed the day.

“We had a lot of people in the leading group, probably 20 of us rolling through. Then we went into St David’s, and down by Clearwater I knew the wind was going to be a factor because it was coming right from the side.

“When we came out of the parking lot there I pushed as hard as I could, and split the group into the four of us.

“We rode together until coming into Somerset, and that’s when the attacks started as we had to start making decisive moves at that stage.

“I put in a big attack coming out of Dockyard, which got rid of Xander and then after that, the three of us were close to each other until the finish.

“It came down to Nick attacking in the last climb, and then a sprint finish and we caught him just before the line.

“Nick attacked in the last climb coming up to Bamboo Gate and he had a pretty decent gap. Conor followed him in the attack, opened up his sprint and I was just able to kick around them in the finish.”

Narraway, at 21 the youngest of the protagonists, came close to winning and that surpassed his expectations.

“That was a good race and it’s nice to have fun in the off-season,’’ he told The Royal Gazette.

“I didn't have too much expectation as I know the course doesn't entirely suit me and there are no climbs really long enough.

“I knew I couldn't leave it down to a sprint finish for the end, because I wouldn't win that, so I sort of played the game with attacks until the end.

“Going up the final climb I attacked, got a decent gap some 50 metres before the line, but they still caught me. It was really close but I had to give it a shot.

“I don’t think it’s truly finished until the finish line, so there was definitely a little bit of doubt. My heart-rate started racing, I could see it and feel it, but it was just wasn't meant to be.”

For White, who won a bronze medal at the Pan American Games in Santiago in November, the race was all about enjoyment as he prepares for a busy 2024

“I'm not disappointed as it’s a fun race,’’ he said. “We all trained hard, and it just came down to who had the better tactics or better sprint at the end.

“Usually I would back myself in the sprint but it was not a proper sprint, so it was tough.

“If it had been a straight-up sprint around that last corner, I would have backed myself to take the win.”

Caitlin Conyers, 33, who recently announced her retirement from international competition, won the women’s race and was fifth overall, her highrst finish in the race.

“That’s the best I've ever done in the President’s Cup so I'm very happy with that,” Conyers said.

“If it had been held a little earlier in the season, without all the young cyclists coming back, I might have done even better.

“The race was really good but very windy. I was in the leading group, but the main guys attacked out of Clearwater and I wasn't able to go with that so I ended up in a group with about five of us.

“We just rotated and worked together for pretty much the whole race, then I attacked going over Burnt House Hill and maintained that until the finish.

“I've retired from the elite athletes with the Bermuda Olympic Association, but I still race locally. In the coming months I’ll be training and we still do the group rides every weekend, I still love riding.

“There’s a lot of young girls coming up, so hopefully I can mentor them and be involved as I can but I’m struggling to get out before work during the week.”

For 15-year-old Charlotte Millington, the junior female champion, it was a tough competition.

“It feels really good to win, but it was a really hard race,’’ she said. “It was only Skye [Ferguson] and myself, so I thought I had a chance but it was a harder race than I thought it was going to be.”

Peter Dunne, the Bermuda Bicycle Association president, was pleased to see the island’s top cyclists taking part in the race.

“It was a great race with a good turnout and it’s great to see the top guys contesting the finish,’’ he said.

“It’s great when you have Conor, Kaden and Nick, our top riders at the moment doing so well, and contesting it right to the very end.

“We had a few more participants than last year. I would like to see more, but we intentionally moved this event to this time of the year because we knew that almost all our top riders would be back for Christmas.

“We had 32 starters and 30 finished. One went the wrong way and the other person, she wasn't feeling too good, so she pulled out.”