Olympic champion Jeannie Longo in recent days will help them in their future efforts.

Longo was part of the Island squad for the Feminin International Du Quebec race which finished in Canada on Sunday.

Although they lost team-mate Jeanna Jones along the way, the team of Longo, Melanie Claude and Julia Hawley managed to finish the course to score a creditable finish alongside many cyclists headed for the Sydney Olympics.

Longo came second in the individual stakes, just two seconds behind event winner, Britain's Ceris Gilfillan, while Claude came in 30th and Hawley 38th.

Team director Paul Claude said: "It was an awesome event in that the calibre was so high -- about 22 percent of the field is going to the Olympics. "I was pretty impressed with the girls finishing this event. There was quite a high level of attrition -- we lost one team member on the Thursday so the girls had to complete in order to even be in there for the team honours.'' Claude said cycling with Longo had been quite an experience for the women.

"They were able to see how a real professional, a top notch cyclist, moves within the pelaton to position herself. They learned a lot out of watching her,'' he said.