when he landed in France for the World Junior Championships.

The conditions were a far cry from those of the 17-year-old's homeland and were probably the last he anticipated during his flight over.

Butterfield has travelled to the town of Plouay in the west of France with Bermuda's national cycling coach, Greg Hopkins and the Island's Olympic cyclist, Elliot Hubbard for the event which will pit him against the creme de la creme of the world's top junior athletes.

As well as the temperature factor, the trio also had to contend with heavy rain and winds which were expected to reach 100km per hour.

The forecast is for the rains to continue throughout the six days of the event with temperatures peaking in the high 50's.

Yesterday was spent riding the time trial course both ways, and Hopkins said by the look of it he expected the ride to be tough.

Butterfield, whose preparation has involved riding against pro-riders in both the US and in Bermuda, rides tomorrow at 12pm French time -- five hours difference from Bermuda.

SIMONS LANDS THE BIG ONE FSH Simons lands the big one It was a case of catch of the day for Bermuda angler, George Simons when he landed a whopper to help the Blue Waters Anglers Club topple their counterparts from Boston's Sea and Surf club.

Simons' catch -- a 36lb striped bass -- was the pick of the haul caught by the club at their 36th annual tournament which was held off Falmouth, Cape Cod recently.

The event began in 1964 when Islanders befriended a small group of African-American anglers from Boston, USA and formed an alliance against segregation and discrimination in the angling fraternity.

More than 30 anglers, sponsors and supporters travelled from Bermuda for the event which is held alternately between the Island and the US.

Competitions were held using 12lb, 20lb and 30lb test lines and on day one the respective honours went to Kirk Dill of Bermuda, Mel Cragwell of Boston and Albert Jenkins of Bermuda.

Day two saw Lovintz Cann of Bermuda at the top of the 12lb stakes, with Donald Bispham and Reggie Tubbs of Boston topping the scales in the other two categories.

Final day honours went to Cragwell again using 12lb, Bermuda's George M.

Simons on 20lb and Jenkins on 30lb.

For the first time ever the overall individual title resulted in a tie with Cann and K C Daniels amassing 1,310 points each.

The final score saw Boston acrue 7,002.5 points to Bermuda's 9,403.

"I don't want to see drugs become an everyday thing in my sport.

Unfortunately, that's the direction it's going.'' -- French soccer star Emmanuel Petit, saying drug use is becoming more prevalent in the game because of increasing demands on players.