There was no glory, but plenty of pride for Bermuda's cyclists as the 2000 CD&P Grand Prix drew to a close yesterday.

The Island's top female cyclist, Melanie Claude, was forced to relinquish her title, but still managed to finish in the top 10 just 49 seconds behind eventual winner, Anne Samplonius.

Her ESCM team-mate, Julia Hawley came in in 14th place and promised there were better things to come from her in the future.

"The road race on Saturday was good,'' said Hawley. "I guess I was the workhorse for the team -- that was hard. It was hard work, so I didn't actually get in the sprint at the end. I probably lost about 15 seconds on the sprint and it was a tough day.'' Having recovered from Saturday's exertions, Hawley said she had been looking forward to her favoured event yesterday.

"I really like criteriums and I knew I had a good one on Thursday so I knew I could be competitive with these girls,'' she said.

"But the thing is I just don't know how they are going to turn out because they can just really hammer hard for a lap or two and if you get off (the pace) your race is over.

"I really tried to stay up there near the front,'' said Hawley, who at one stage on Front Street was the lead rider. "But I'm not known as a sprinter and my goal was just to be in the pack at the end.'' Thoroughly pleased with her performance, she said: "Melanie (Claude) and I have race against a lot of these girls and in the States. I've done three races over there and if you're racing against the same girls you know what your level is. It's just nice to have that competition -- it's wonderful.'' Describing this season as `fantastic' she added: "This is a stepping stone for me. Next year I'm hoping for even more competition overseas and getting even stronger -- that's my goal.'' On the men's side there was huge disappointment for Kris Hedges who had more than held his own over the three-day stage event.

As his Richards Sachs team-mates, including Bermuda's Tyler Butterfield, dropped out of the final day's criterium, Hedges remained in contention in the main group.

But with the majority of the stage completed he was pulled from the race while out on the course and did not receive a general classification time as he failed to coast over the start-finish line.

Colby Pearce, of Team Shaklee, took the men's title recording an overall time of 4:12.49, three seconds clear of second-placed Matt DeCanio of Hot Tubes.

"On Saturday my Shaklee team-mates just controlled the race,'' Pearce said.

"Because the time trial wasn't very long the time gaps weren't very big -- there was only three seconds between myself and second place -- so we knew we couldn't afford to let anyone get off the front.

"We were also leading the team general classification so we wanted to have three of our guys in the main group as well and that worked out so we rode a real defensive race and let the other guys sprint for the stage placings.'' Shaklee kept the same gameplan yesterday, but Pearce said the heat played a role.

"It was hot, really hot -- so that was definitely a factor. I've never liked the heat -- I'm from Colorado were the humidity is zero and the average temperature 72 degrees so I was definitely suffering but I really wanted to win the race.'' He added: "This is my first time in Bermuda -- it's a beautiful island, a great place to visit and it's a great way to end the season. I don't know if I'm going to do any more races this year or not but this is a great way for me to wrap up the year.'' Bermuda's Butterfield heads for the World Junior Championships in France next month and was using this event as a training exercise for then.

He figured well in the Classic on Thursday night, but said he felt the pace on the other three stages.

Referring to Saturday's Road Race, he said: "Kris (Hedges) was in 12th place so we had a couple of team mates working for him. Towards the end it got pretty fast on the last half of the lap, but other than that it was a pretty good race.

"I wasn't feeling too sharp so I was sitting at the back of the pack, sort of struggling.'' He completed that stage, but failed to make it to the end of yesterday's event, pulling out around the same time as Bermuda's other male representative, Geri Mewett.