Zoenique Williams had more reason than most to be buoyant about her performances in the Butterfield Bermuda Grand Prix.

Williams finished runner-up in the women’s division, just one second behind overall winner Alyssa Rowse who she teamed up with during the Hamilton Criterium — the third and final stage.

The grand prix, one of the highlights of the domestic cycling calendar, marks 12 months since Williams’ return to racing after battling with multiple sclerosis.

She had the disease diagnosed in February last year after undergoing months of testing, having suffered from numbness in her hands and arms while riding during the 2015 season.

“Overall my health is under control and I’ve been training hard,” Williams said. “I’ll just see how I progress.”

Williams only managed to compete in the St George’s Hill Climb and the Southside Road Race last year — her first race after an eight-month break — because of her condition but produced a trio of strong performances at the weekend.

The Winners Edge rider placed fifth in the hill climb, fourth in the road race before coming second in the criterium in an overall time of 1hr 37min 44sec. Ashley Estwanik, of Team Madison, was third overall in 1:38:00.

Williams, 32, said she was satisfied with her displays in the first and final stages but believed she should have switched her tactics in the road race.

“I was pleased to finish second and I’m excited about that,” she said. “That hill [in St George’s] — well, you might do well one year and not the next.

“It’s just about how you attack the hill and I guess I didn’t get a good push off at the start.

“It’s a long hill and when I got to the crest of the hill my legs were just like, ‘No, you’re not going!’ It was still a good time.

“The road race was different. I think we [Rowse and Nicole Mitchell] should have done what we did in the criterium and just gone out and left everybody.”

In the face of a strong Madison team including Estwanik, April Joyce, Sarah Bonnett and Rose-Anna Hoey, Williams worked closely with Rowse, of Bicycle Works, for a top-two finish in both the criterium and the overall competition.

“Working together was the plan,” Williams said. “We talked about it after the road race as we were outnumbered by the Madison ladies.

“We had a conversation — myself, Alyssa and Nicole [Mitchell] — and said we would go out from the gun as we know we’re strong women.”

Williams believes developing an understanding with Rowse could be useful heading into the NatWest Island Games in Gotland, Sweden, in June.

“I’m looking forward to the Island Games and [the criterium] was good preparation for that,” she said.

“Alyssa is strong and if she sticks to it she can do amazing things in the sport. She’s super strong. I wish I’d started as early as her.”

Williams, a policewoman, only took up cycling for fun but quickly emerged as one of the most dominant riders on the island.

She wasted no time in making her mark in her first international competition at the 2013 Elite Caribbean Cycling Championships in Curaçao, where she won a silver medal in the road race.

Williams repeated that feat by finishing second at the following year’s championships in Puerto Rico to secure a spot for Bermuda at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto where she competed in the road race.

At the 2015 Island Games in Jersey, Williams was part of the Bermuda women’s team that won bronze in the criterium and silver in the road race.

About 2.5 million people in world have MS.

It is normally diagnosed in people between the ages of 20 and 40.

Symptoms include fatigue, vision problems and difficulties with walking, but MS is different for everyone.