on the verge of breaking through into the top flight during Sunday's Handicap Criterium race in St. David's.

Carpentier won the category two race while Hedges took overall honours. While most of the island's triathletes sat at home disappointed at the cancellation of the Bank of Bermuda Triathlon, the Bermuda Bicycle Association went ahead with their race schedule in wet but almost windless weather conditions.

Race director Steve Sterritt put together an interesting race format that saw all the riders start together. However, the category two riders completed 11 laps, the veterans and novices ten laps, the juniors II riders eight laps and the juniors III riders six laps.

Carpentier, in his first race since severing his achilles tendon in one of the season's early races, pulled the field around the demanding 1.8-mile loop course which included a long uphill climb and a number of testing sharp turns in the wet conditions.

The juniors, veterans and novice riders quickly lost contact as Carpentier turned on the pace on the hill, but Mike Lee, Hedges and Jeff Payne stuck with him.

Payne, who is concentrating his efforts in time trials at this stage of the season, was the first to lose contact with the lead pack, but Lee and the impressive junior, Hedges, held on.

Hedges, who was supposed to be competing in the cancelled triathlon, stayed with the senior riders knowing that all he had to do was stay in contact to take overall victory under the handicap format.

Another triathlete, Steve Petty, battled with Martin Bolton in the veterans division.

Petty lost contact with Bolton in the early stages of the race but rallied to lose the final sprit by just one second.

With Carpentier still setting the pace, Hedges completed his eight laps still in contact with the category two riders and thereby recording a clear overall victory.

On the final leg, Carpentier entered the finishing straight with a slight lead and then sprinted clear to beat out Lee by just six seconds.

In the other categories contested, Rodney Smith was a clear winner in the novice division as was Adam Petty in the junior III division.

As the handicap system was worked out, Hedges was declared the overall winner, Adam Petty second and Tyler Butterfield third.

The next event scheduled is the popular hill climb which takes place November 3 at the Southampton Princess.