Kaden Hopkins holds a slim lead over defending Men’s A champion and Winners Edge team-mate, Matthew Oliveira, while Nicole Mitchell leads women’s champion Alyssa Rowse following the first stage of the Butterfield Bermuda Grand Prix last evening in St George’s.

Hopkins recorded the best time in the hill climb, 45.373 seconds in the 600 metre climb up Government Hill Road. However, the 17-year-old Saltus student knows there is still plenty of work to be done over the final two stages, starting with the road race at Southside this morning. Oliveira is just over a second behind after clocking 46.617. Robin Horsefield (48.908), Mark Hatherley (49.426) and Darren Glasford (49.989) complete the top five men.

“It went pretty much according to plan, I had nothing go wrong in my race up the hill,” Hopkins said. “I did about 45 seconds and from what I know it was the fastest of the night so far but we’ll have to wait until the official results come in.

“Today isn’t really a deciding factor, it’s just to get that initial position. But I’m feeling pretty good today and we’ll see how it goes tomorrow. We have a strong team going into the next two days, so we’ll see how it turns out.”

Oliveira, who was fourth in the hill climb last year, is in a good position going into today’s road race, before the riders take to Hamilton tomorrow for the deciding criterium. In that event last year Oliveira lapped the field to claim a first title at the age of 16. He and Warwick Academy schoolmate, Rowse, also now 17, are aiming to defend their titles.

“I don’t usually do as good on the hill climb, it’s not just my strength, the short, fast explosion,” Oliveira said. “But I hope to do better tomorrow morning and Sunday morning in the road race and crit.

“Kaden is my team-mate and hopefully we can do some damage by working together. In the climb I don’t worry too much because I know the slowest I’m going to be from first place is three or four seconds. I can easily make that up over the next two days so I don’t stress about it, I just do what I can.”

Last year the riders encountered a strong wind at the top of the northern climb, but conditions yesterday were ideal. “It was windy at the top on the flat section,” Oliveira said. He is feeling added pressure this year as the defending champion.

“I’m the guy they will look out for, if I make a move everyone wants to make sure I don’t get away so they’ll cover my attacks. I’ll just do my best, I know I’m capable of retaining my title if I can race smart, and if I feel good on the day.”

Rowse had a time similar to last year’s 1 min 01.978 sec when she clocked 1.01.157. “It was close to the same time last year but I will admit I haven’t trained as hard as I did last year,” she said while awaiting the official results. I did better than I thought I was going to do, which is always good.”

Nicole Mitchell leads the women after she was the only female to go under one minute with her time of 59.614 seconds, but Rowse is confident she can be competitive again.

“I’m about a second and a half behind the leader, which hopefully I can make up tomorrow, then we’ll see how the rest of the race goes,” she said.

Rowse won all three stages last year to claim her first title. “I feel like there is pressure on me since I did win last year,’ she admitted.

“After tomorrow I’ll either be happy or a little worried. My best stage will probably be the crit and that’s good to know going into it, so maybe I can make up some time. Crits are quite technical so you never know how it’s going to go. I’ll try to catch up on the second-and-a-half and, if possible, to get even more of a lead.”

Close behind Rowse are Sarah Bonnett (1.01.277), Zoenique Williams (1.02.658) and Ashley Estwanik (1.04.252).