Dominique Mayho continues to show that he is the man to beat locally as he took the honours in yesterday’s Winners Edge Criterium in Hamilton.

Held on a demanding course with plenty of tight turns to rest the riders to their limits, the Team Madison rider found himself with company until the final lap, with Winners Edge youngsters Kaden Hopkins and Matthew Oliviera matching him through the 45-minute race.

The trio were in a league of their own yesterday, breaking away from a strong field after two laps and eventually lapping the field in a dominant display of powerful riding.

The three riders, who recently returned from strong performances in the Green Mountain Stage Race, were clearly in no mood to let the pace settle, with Oliviera making the first significant attack.

Only Mayho and Hopkins could respond, and once the three were together the writing was on he wall.

Mayho made his winning move before turning off Burnaby Hill onto Front Street, sprinting clear to the finish line with Hopkins little more than a second behind and Oliviera finishing third, six seconds back.

The adult B category was a much closer affair, with numerous attacks off the front neutralised by a hard chasing field. With nobody able to make any significant move off the front it appear that a bunch sprint was inevitable.

Just as the riders seemed to be positioning themselves for the final two laps, Adam Kirk, the Winners Edge rider, attacked off the front and got a few seconds’ gap.

Dennis Dagundo and Mark Lombardi, of Team Tokio, tried to pull him back, but Kirk’s team-mate Ricky Smith stuck to them like glue, interrupting the chase and enabling Kirk to extend his lead and take the victory with Smith, a renowned sprinter taking second. Fagundo rounded out the top three.

The category C race got off to a very aggressive start, and in a pre-planned move youngster Conor White, of Winners Edge, in his first season of racing, quickly found himself in a three-man break with former May 24 winner Wayne Scott and Sergio Edness.

Garth Fleming and Paulo Medeiros, the pre-race favourites, were off the pace but with his team-mates, White and Scott, in the break Medeiros was content to just mark him.

Lap after lap White was clearly setting the pace with Edness following his every move, and with Scott clearly just happy to be in the move.

As the race came into the closing stages another youngster, Ziani Burgesson, was working tirelessly to pull back the break, and Medeiros, who had not dropped Fergusson, was free to try to get into the action.

In the closing stages White made his move and broke clear to record his first win. Scott held on for second after Edness finally tired, and a fast-closing Medeiros made it a one, two, three for Winners Edge.

Meanwhile, women’s racing has clearly found a new rider to watch out for.

Well-known runner Rose Anna Hoey has quickly drawn the attention of her competition especially with her aggressive attacking style of riding. Despite her inexperience she shows no fear of racing hard from the gun which is what she did yesterday.

Breaking away early from a strong field Hoey simply put her head down and threw down the gauntlet.

At one pint she was reeled in by the chasing pack, but she quickly took control and broke away again to take a solo victory by almost 45 seconds over Sarah Bonnett, her Madison Digicel team-mate, with Bicycle Works rider Wenda Roberts a further two seconds back, after a spirited battle with Tristan Narraway.