Conor White led the way for Bermuda’s cyclists by winning gold in the time-trial at the Caribbean Championships on Saturday.

White beat compatriot Kaden Hopkins by 36 seconds in Guyana, with his success helping enhance the reputation of Bermuda’s riders in the region.

Bermuda are now expected to top the podium in the time-trial largely thanks to the exploits of Hopkins and White in recent years.

“Since 2018, we’ve pretty much dominated the time-trials at Caribbean Championships,” said White, who finished sixth in a sprint finish in the road race yesterday.

“We know that we should be winning these every time we come here and that adds a bit of pressure, but we know the level we’re at and it’s the highest in the Caribbean so as long as we put together a decent ride, we’ll do well.

“My winning ride wasn’t amazing in terms of numbers, but considering the heat it was OK. I knew that it was likely to come down to me or Kaden. That’s a healthy rivalry and we’ve gotten faster because of it over the years.”

It was a frustrating week for runner-up Hopkins, who arrived at the event late after he was wrongly prevented from travelling to the US on a Bermudian passport without an Esta. That interrupted preparations and was compounded when he took the wrong course during the time-trial, with the time lost meaning he was unable to challenge his team-mate.

“I definitely underperformed and then had some issues because I didn’t get to see the course beforehand,” Hopkins said.

“I actually turned off the course at one point and then had to turn and come back on it. They also didn’t have the best traffic control at the turnarounds and at one point I got to one of them and there were a ton of cars, so I just had to navigate my way through them.

“It wasn’t the best but I’m happy considering the week I had coming to it.”

It is perhaps no surprise that Hopkins failed to finish the road race, but he did make it into the winning break before fatigue set in.

“I was feeling better for the first part of it and got into the winning group,” Hopkins said.

“I had to bridge across to it after it went and I just never recovered from that effort. After 40 minutes with the leaders I just felt that I was completely empty and I got dropped and could barely turn the legs.”

Nicholas Narraway was disappointed to be taking home the silver medal in the under-23 time-trial after winning gold last year and he put his 1.9-second defeat by Christopher Morales, of Puerto Rico, down to mechanical issues.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit disappointed to win the silver,” Narraway said.

“Last year, I won gold by a large margin and this year it wasn’t due to a lack of ability. I had some issues beforehand and my rear tyre had something wrong with it and it was rubbing on the frame, so I needed to swap wheels to a much slower wheel.

“Everything counts in a TT, which is why the set-ups are so different, so because of those problems I didn’t have a full warm-up. For everything to go so wrong and still go pretty close to winning is impressive.”

Olympic triathlete Tyler Smith made the trip to Guyana to help his friends in the road race and was happy to be in a team format rather than focusing on individual goals.

“It was a good experience and nice to not have to worry about the logistics of a swim before and a run after,” Smith said.

“These guys are strong and the big difference is the punchiness. People are always trying to break away. The level is pretty strong here and in terms of power numbers the triathlon level would be similar, but only for 40km not 100km.

“It’s almost easier with the camaraderie and it’s a lot easier with the back-up team here than what I usually have in a triathlon, when I am doing all the running around. I knew it was a big race for them and it was nice to help them try to accomplish their goals.”

The final member of the Bermuda squad was Gabriella Arnold, who took silver in the elite women’s time-trial on Saturday and in the road-race late yesterday.