riders in the Tour of Navarre in Spain over the weekend.

And the performance impressed her team enough to invite her to ride with them again in France in June.

Claude was part of a five-member French team called Etoile Conde-sur-Noireau which included three former national champions and a former world champion in Isabelle Nicoloso. Even so, the Bermudian placed third among her team-mates in the gruelling four-stage race.

And now she is looking forward to rejoining the team for a six-day stage race in Brittany, hoping to gain more experience riding in the mountainous terrain in Europe.

"It went well, I wasn't expecting to come back with a gold or anything,'' said Claude yesterday, the day after returning home.

"The women I was racing with were all pros and a lot of them have already qualified for the Olympics so the calibre was extremely high.'' Claude experienced faults with her rear brakes on the first stage, a 127 kilometre race over hilly terrain in Tuleda near Pamplona last Friday. That forced her to be more cautious with her front brakes on the turns as she finished 85th.

"That's what put me back quite a bit,'' said Claude. "On day two there were quite a few collisions which obviously had an impact, too.'' In the 6.8 kilometre time-trial and 80 kilometre road race on the second day Claude finished 73rd and 91st before placing 73rd again in the 103 kilometre road race.

"I'm very satisfied, looking at the field,'' said Claude. "One girl I knew from former events, a Cuban girl who won the World B Championships in Uruguay, was there.

"To give you an indication of the calibre we were competing against, she placed 65th overall, so for small countries, even though we did well in the World B Championships, competing against A class cyclists makes a big difference.'' Added Claude: "The first girl that came in in our team was the national sprint champion and is already quite a good cyclist. She would have been in the high 60s or 70s in terms of overall placement.'' Claude's next major outing will be the popular Sinclair Packwood Memorial road race from Somerset to Hamilton on May 24 when she will be up against the Island's top men.

"Bear in mind I'm actually riding in the men's category so it's difficult to say whether you'll be hearing my name,'' Claude warned.

Melanie Claude: will rejoin the French Etoile Conde-sur-Noireau team in June.