Bermuda’s leading three junior cyclists are facing the best young riders in the world in Bergen, Norway, this week.

Alyssa Rowse, Kaden Hopkins and Matthew Oliveira are representing Bermuda at the UCI Road World Championships, which started yesterday, with Rowse placing 38th in the women’s junior individual time-trial.

Rowse, 17, finished the 16.1-kilometres course in a time of 26min 50.33sec.

Elena Pirrone, of Italy, won the time-trial in 23:19.72, with her compatriot Alessia Vigilia coming second in 23:26.10 and Madeleine Fasnacht, of Australia, finishing third in 24:02.04.

“It was a little more hilly than I expected it to be,” Rowse, the first Bermudian woman to compete at the championships, told the UCI World Championships website.

“But it was a good race, it was well mapped out, it was hard. I wish I would have done a little bit better, but I did as good as I could do today so I guess it is all I can ask for.”

Rowse, who returns to action in the women’s road race on Friday, revealed that Bermuda’s participation at the championships was in jeopardy because of lost luggage.

“We got here on Saturday, we lost our luggage on our way up, so that was a bit of a disappointment,” Rowse added. “But luckily, we got it yesterday, so we were able to ride.”

The Bermuda team does not enjoy the same budget as many other countries competing at the championships in Norway.

“We live in at an Airbnb 100 metres from todays starting line,” Peter Dunne, the Bermuda Bicyle Association, president said.

Hopkins and Oliveira will compete today in the junior men’s individual time-trial before the road race on Saturday.

All three riders competed at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Nassau, Bahamas, in July. Oliveira won the gold medal in the boys’ time-trial and bronze in the road race and Rowse bronze in the girls’ time-trial. Hopkins narrowly missed out on the podium in the boys’ time-trial, finishing sixth.