Kaden Hopkins continued his fine performances at the Tour of Guadeloupe by finishing sixth on a brutal mountain stage today.

Just a day after winning stage three, Hopkins showed no tirednessin the 145.5 kilometre race from Anse-Bertrand to Belle-Eau as he formed part of a strong breakaway group.

While that group was passed by some of the leading contenders for overall tour glory, Hopkins held on well on the final climb to cross the line just 19 seconds behind stage winner Kevin Castillo, from Colombia.

The Bermudian still has the honour of wearing the green jersey as the leading points scorer on this year’s tour and was pleased with his performance.

“After the stage yesterday we talked among the team about trying to get me or one of my other team-mates in the breakaway today, so that was the main objective,” Hopkins said.

“It was very difficult to actually do that as the team that is second in the general classification really did not want us to get into a breakaway and tried to control the race.

“But at one point I managed to get away with a strong group and we opened a gap, I think at one point it got to was about five minutes, but in the last climb up to the finish the favourites for the GC caught the group that I was in and I just paced it as best as I could to limit losses for my team leader.

“At the end of the day he lost 19 seconds but we managed to keep the yellow jersey for another day. Overall, it was another positive day and we will go again tomorrow with another ambition for a stage win.”

Stage five from Gourbeyre-Abymes (158.9km), which takes place on Wednesday, features a much less daunting profile with a mix of climbing.