Four of the island's top cyclists got their San Dimas Stage Race challenge under way yesterday in the San Gabriel Mountains in California.

Dominique Mayho, Kaden Hopkins, Nicholas Narraway and Caitlin Conyers started the three-stage event with a time-trial up Glendora Mountain Road before a road race today and a criterium tomorrow.

All four riders are competing in different categories, with Mayho in men's category two, Hopkins in the pro one race, Narraway in the junior 17 to 18 race and Conyers in the pro one and two women's race.

After the first stage, Conyers, representing Bicycle Works Bermuda finished an impressive fourth out of 11 competitors in her field in a time of 20mins exactly, 1min 04secs behind leader Holly Breck. Emma Grant finished second, 12 seconds behind Breck, with Karina Susej Esqueda completing the top three, 41 seconds behind the leader.

Mayho, representing VT Construction Madison, finds himself in twentieth position overall out of 39 riders in his field having finished the time trial in 18:11, to leave him 2.17mins behind overall leader Brandon Nied of TrainerRoad. Nied holds a slender seven second lead over Jason Pedersen of Team Simple Green and a further 32 second advantage over third-placed Landry Bobo, representing Highline Racing.

Hopkins faired slightly better in his respective standings to find himself sixteenth after the first event. Representing Winners Edge, Hopkins finished in 16:01, exactly one minute behind overall leader James Piccoli of Elevate-KHS Pro Cycling. In an extremely close race, the Canadian finished just three seconds faster than Cory Lockwood, who in turn finished just one second faster than Sean Quinn.

In his category, Narraway, representing Miller School of Albemarle, sits 27th out a field of 66, having finished his time trial in 17:41, leaving him 3.08 behind first-placed Matthew Ricittello, who crossed the line in a blistering time of 14:33. Danie Morales Gavilla, sits 1:25 behind the leader, with Jared Scott 1.41 behind.

For Conyers, the race will serve as preparation for the Pan American Games, to be held in Lima, Peru, from July 26 to August 11.

“Going to California will hopefully be great preparation for Pan American Games,” said Conyers, ahead of travelling out to the United States.

“I'm super excited for the Games. I've never been before, this will be first time and so it will be a big race for me, I'm really looking forward to it.”