Kris Hedges' audacity in taking charge of the CD&P Grand Prix stung his professional rivals into action over the weekend, destroying the Bermudian's hopes of a hometown win.

Hedges, who rides for the amateur Snow Valley team in the US, led the four-stage event after Friday's second stage time trial and was looking good with Saturday's Clearwater Road Race and yesterday's Hamilton Criterium to come.

However, the competition, which featured some of the top US cyclists, including Tour De France rider George Hincapie, were far from happy with the situation and set about upsetting the applecart, Mercury's Scott Moninger eventually lifting the title. Hedges finished 25th.

He and his team-mates went out to consolidate their position during Saturday's 100 kilometre race and were on course when the pro riders put the hammer down.

After some intense cycling, Hincapie, who rides with the legendary Lance Armstrong as part of the US Postal team, crossed the line first with Moninger second, Brice Jones third and Henk Vogels fourth.

"I think we surprised them and definitely (on Saturday) they came out to get us," said Hedges, who said he heard that some of professionals had said they "didn't like an amateur team leading everything".

"We had pretty good control of the race for the first half, almost the first two thirds. But George and a few other pros rode us down and unfortunately we had bad positioning at the time and that was it - that was the race."

Hedges had to settle for 15th and the result saw him slip from first to 11th in the general classification, two minutes and 30 seconds adrift of overall leader Moninger. Hincapie and Jones were ten and 40 seconds down respectively.

That meant that Mercury rider Moninger could ride defensively during yesterday's criterium and let his team-mates work to keep his lead intact.

The pattern of the race was dictated by Hedges' team-mate Jon Wirsing and Fast Forward/Casati rider Mike Janele who broke away from the rest of the field early on.

The status quo remained until the heavens opened on lap 15.

As the rains came down the field began to disintegrate as riders dropped out, either as the result of an accident on the now slippery surface or as a precautionary measure.

Bermuda's Wayne Scott was among those to call it a day, citing key races to come in Florida, where he is fifth in the state rankings, as his reason for pulling off the course.

As Janele tired, Wirsing took the bull by the horns but could not sustain his challenge to the end, the field catching him with two laps to go.

This now meant that there was a chance Hedges could add to his earlier stage success but his hopes were dashed just moments later when he suffered a puncture. With the rules stipulating that as the riders were within five laps of the end he could not take a lap out and rejoin the lead group, his race was run.

But his disappointment was more than tempered by the fact that team-mate Scott Zwizanski took up the gauntlet, digging deep over the final kilometres to ensure that Snow Valley's efforts were rewarded with their second stage win of the event.

Hedges said after Saturday's events he and his team-mates had vowed to hit back.

"Jon (Wirsing) was a little upset with the way things happened (on Saturday) so he came out aggressive," said Hedges. "My legs still felt pretty good, so if he came back (to the main pack) I was ready to go and obviously Scott (Zwizanski) was feeling pretty good too.

"We just wanted to be aggressive and show them that they shouldn't have done what they did (on Saturday)."

Hedges said the criterium win capped a terrific outing for his team.

"Earlier in the week I should have done more because on Thursday night I was sitting pretty comfortable," he said. "But winning the time trial was great and leading (going into Saturday) was more than I could ask for on my home tour. Then for Scott to win today is great exposure for Snow Valley."

Event winner Moninger was more than happy to be able to ride conservatively yesterday and let others do the leg work.

"It was only a ten second lead but that was on second place and then it dropped off pretty quickly to a 40 second lead on third place and down to about two minutes for anyone else out of the top six," he said. "That meant with it being a short race my team-mates could control things and keep everything in check."

Moninger said he was glad to have finally made it out to Bermuda and to win the event made the trip even sweeter.

"I have been trying to get over here before but the race has always conflicted with something else on our schedule," he said. "I am really glad to be here, it's a beautiful island."

Bermuda's Geri Mewett had a solid ride throughout the Grand Prix, finishing in the main group in each of the four stages for an overall finish of 22nd.

In the Male Open category, Travis Pidcock saw off a determined challenge by Dan Lefebvre to win the overall title in 2:36.05.

Bermuda's Kent Richardson had a terrific third place finish while fellow Island racer Steve Millington came in fourth with Andy Kain fifth.

In the Female Open category, Karen Smith beat Ashley Kirkpatrick and Melissa DeSilva, the latter pair only just having moved up to this class.

In the Male Veterans, Fred Kelley rode to glory with Ken Abrams second and Rex Brewer third.

Todd Elenz celebrated first place in the Male Juniors 15 to 16 category with Geoffrey Smith second and Khamari Greaves third.

Flora Duffy was the sole rider in the Female Juniors 15 to 16 group. In the Female Juniors 13 to 14 group, Caitlyn Conyers came in first with Ally Bolton second.

Matthew Godfrey held off James E.C. Adams in the Male Junior 13 to 14 category with Aaron Fenn in third.

The Male Juniors 11 to 12 was won by Timmy Fox, with Alexander McManus second and Geoffrey Burns third. Amy Fox was the only entrant in the Female Juniors 11 to 12.