World Cup event against a high-class field in Montreal, Canada on Sunday.

All three Bermudians were lapped, so did not receive a placing, but Olympic hopeful Claude was hampered by misfortune after a mechanical problem forced her to stop within the first kilometre.

The 13-lap, 99.6-kilometre event, sanctioned by cycling's world governing body UCI, was set in and around Montreal's picturesque Mount Royal Park which included 45 mph descents, a dangerous hairpin turn and several technical switchbacks and turns.

Hawley settled into a rythm in a pack just behind a very fast main group, while Godfrey struggled to maintain the hot pace set by the leaders.

The race became one of attrition where the lead pack voraciously hunted down and lapped nearly half the field. Godfrey, even with a very supportive crowd, was the first Bermudian to be forced by race officials to retire after being lapped.

The major difficulty on the course was a steep, one-mile climb that determined the eventual winning break.

Claude pulled out the stops to recover almost a minute from attending to her mechanical problem to catch Hawley's small group, which included two Canadian national team members. However, Claude and Hawley's group were caught by the leaders at the base of the climb on lap nine.

The eventual winning move was set in motion on the climb by the Italian Team GAS. Team members Pia Sundstedt and Fabiana Luperini broke away three laps from a group of 20 riders that never was able to catch them.

The Bermudian riders were upbeat about the experience of competing in one of only seven elite women's World Cup events. They were scheduled to compete in a criterium yesterday before returning home today.