Dominique Mayo made a flawless start in his bid to regain the Bermuda Grand Prix title after winning the first stage of the event held in the old town of St George’s yesterday.

The 25-year old coped best with the windy conditions to win the hillclimb in the men’s A division with a time of 44.8 sec, covering the distance five seconds faster than closest rival Jamie Cousins.

“I wanted to start the weekend off good,” Mayo said. “It’s always a good test at the start of the weekend and I had fun doing it.

“This hill is very challenging. If it was just a climb it would be pretty easy but because it flattens out it’s hard to keep the momentum going.

“The hill is really short so you have to get a good start. Then at the top once it flattens out it’s hard, because like tonight it was a headwind and once you get over the top it turns into a crosswind as you turn, so it was pretty hard to keep the mometum going. I just tried to be as aerodynamic as possible while still trying to go as hard as I can.”

The multiple BBA Bermuda Grand Prix champion was in contention for overall honours last year but had to settle for second as a mechanical breakdown took its toll.

“Last year I dropped a chain like 100 metres to go in the criterium and lost it to Matthew Oliveira,” Mayo said.

“Last year we had technical difficulties but this year I have a good team around me and it should be a good race.

“The gear is working properly, I’m feeling in good shape and it should be a good weekend.”

Darren Glasford posted the third fastest time in the men’s A division of 51 sec.

Louise Wells won the women’s event with a time of 1min 7.2 sec with Karen Smith taking second (1:09) and Dianna White (1:10) third respectively.

Caitlyn Conyers actually produced the fastest time by a woman of 57secs but is competing in the men’s B division this year.

“I’m not racing in the women’s race this year, I’m doing the men’s B because it’s a longer course,” last year’s overall women’s champion said.

“I have teammates in the men’s B road race tomorrow (today) so we’ll be able to use a little bit of team tactics and strategy and that should be really fun.”

The Bermuda Grand Prix continues today with the road race at Clearwater in St David’s.

“Tomorrow (today) will shake out the general classification as there are time bonuses in the intermediate and final sprints, and the pelotons are likely to have splits which create significant time gaps,” Peter Dunne, the Bermuda Bycicle Association president, said. “This changes things for the overall titles and sets up for a dynamic race on Sunday (tomorrow) in Hamilton.”