Kaden Hopkins’s legs are definitely feeling the burn after completing his first weekend of the year on the professional cycling circuit in France.

The Bermudian cyclist featured prominently for his Vendée U team in the first two stages of the 2024 Essor Basque, finishing eighteenth and eighth among a field of nearly 150 competitors but a return to race riding has certainly left its mark.

“The first race weekend is always a huge wake-up call,” Hopkins said.

“For these early-season races, everybody is just trying to get their legs woken up and get back into a race rhythm. It’s one of those things that a lot of people don’t really talk about, but it doesn’t really matter how hard you train or how much you train — when you get back into racing there is a rhythm that you have to get used to because everything is much faster and much more explosive.

“It’s not like training where you do three or four hours and you’re pedalling the whole time; it’s more like you’re either full-gas sprinting or soft pedalling. That rhythm is something that takes people a while to get used to.”

The young rider has assumed more responsibility as one of Vendée U’s 2024 team leaders and prominent showings in big races can be expected, with Hopkins picking up his first award of the season when being named most combative rider on just his second outing of the year.

““It’s a good thing to win,” Hopkins said.

“Typically, it’s given to the rider who is present in a lot of breakaways on the day and still finishes high up or if someone is in the breakaway all day and at the end they attack and are the last one to get caught.

“I was in two or three pretty promising breakaways and then still had a decent finish, so I was given that award and it's nice. Sometimes when you are in the race and just following everything around you don’t really realise the whole dynamic of the race, but they are always keeping track of where everybody is, so it’s a nice award to get in the first weekend of racing.”

While Hopkins is high in the general classification of the Essor Basque with three stages to go this week, Vendée U have a different plan for Hopkins and are keeping him closer to home for the Plages Vendeenes, with an eye on reducing his travel miles this year and keeping him fresh.

“I did the first two stages of Essor Basque, but instead this week I’m staying by where our team house is in Vendée and racing Plages Vendéennes, which is another two weekends of races back to back.

“There are two races the first weekend and two races the second weekend. The team gets split in half to go to either one and I had a bit of a choice this time.

“It’s about four or five hours travel to the Essor Basque, whereas it’s 30 minutes to an hour for the one I’m racing in.

“I got a bit of a say in my schedule as last year I did so much travelling throughout the year and I know it will be the same this year, so it’s nice to start off with not so many big travel weekends back to back.

“It’s nice that this week I am getting to stay in the area where the team house is, so short travels to the races will be great to not get tired out so quickly.”

It’s fair to say that the February races and stages are not high on the wanted list for top professional cyclists with the main focus on bigger, more prestigious and more lucrative races in the spring, and Hopkins has a couple of big events circled on his calendar.

“The races in February are not the super-important ones and my first big objective of the year will be a one-day race at the beginning of March,” Hopkins said.

“It’s called Manche Atlantique and that’s a big one for the team. After that it will be racing for training to build up for the Circuit of Ardennes, which is in the first week in April and that will be my first proper target of the year, where I am trying to peak in the season.”