Interview with Kaden Hopkins
Kaden Hopkins finishing 11th at the 2022 Commonwealth Games TT (David Davies/Pa via AP)
Kaden Hopkins is one of a group of young, exciting riders emerging from the Caribbean. Based in Spain, he's had a good year, notably riding strongly at the Commonwealth Games in August.
Now he goes to the World Championships in Wollongong, Australia, racing in the under-23 category, looking to show his talent and prove he has what it takes to make the next step. It was great to talk to him and hear some of his story as he goes through his final preparations.
It's unusual to see a Bermudian rider racing in Europe. How did you start racing?
Growing up where I did, people always used to say: 'you're from Bermuda, you won't be a pro cyclist.' I would see, in Europe, 18 year-olds already winning races against the pros and getting contracts. Right off the bat it felt like you were playing catch up. Being from such a small place and being so far from Europe, it's not as easy to get into a bigger racing scene.
Growing up, it was like a stepping ladder. I started riding a bike in Bermuda, just having fun on my mountain bike. When I was 15 I went to my first Caribbean championships in the Domincan Republic. That was my sole international racing back then. Then I started racing in the States. Every year we would take a team from Bermuda to the Green Mountain Stage Race Juniors. For a few years, that was the only race we would do outside of Bermuda. After I graduated High School, I went to college in Colorado and being based in the States made it much easier to get good racing. I raced the collegiate scene and some US stage races. Then COVID hit and everything shut down. I went back to Bermuda and didn't have any races to prepare for, so I did the biggest training year of my life just doing laps of a tiny little island every day.
Coming to the end of 2020, the Spanish team, Essax, announced that they were going to launch. There was a guy from Dominican Republic who used to race, Diego Milan, he used to be involved with the Inteja team which used to be a continental team in the Dominican Republic. He gave me a call and let me know about the team and if I wanted a spot, I could have it. Luckily I come from a family of athletes. Dad was a triathlete and Mom was a really good swimmer. I told them about the opportunity to go to Europe and they gave me their support to do it. A couple of months later I got on a plane to Europe.
What's the racing scene like in Bermuda?
You'd be surprised if you saw it. We don't have a system like Europe, it's more like the States with the category system. On a good weekend you might get eighty people racing across the different categories. During the season there are almost weekly races. We have a really good support in the Bermuda Bicycle Association. Most people around my age started riding a bike because of them. Peter Dunne is the Head of the BBA. Every Tuesday and Thursday, he would have training sessions for the juniors. We would finish school and then go the for an hour's training session. That got us involved in more structured training. Before then it was just me and my friends going out on mountain bikes and messing around. Then we would go to his house and he would have wind-trainers set up or we'd go out on the roads. We would do more structured interval sessions and things like that.
We have five or six guys around my age now all racing for Bermuda and we all came through that programme. For just a small island, there's a really good support system and a good way into the sport.
So that's guys like Conor White, Nic Narraway...
Yep and also Liam Flannery and Alexander Miller. Liam is based in the States as well on another team there. Conor and Nic are team-mates on the CS Velo team. Alexander Miller is going to the UK this year for schooling but will also do some racing over there.
It's interesting that we've seen a real development in Eritrea over the last few years and it seems like it's quite similar to Bermuda in some ways. In Asmara they have weekly races and that regular racing has been one reason for them developing so much talent.
Absolutely. From personal insight, not may people know about Caribbean cycling but there are lots of countries in the Caribbean now which are creating some really solid bike riders. Lots of guys riding internationally now from the Domincan Republic, Puerto Rico, Barbados, Trinidad as well. Guys from Barbados are based in the States now, some racing for the Miami Blazers team. In the Spanish peloton now there are two Dominican guys racing. Obviously there is Abner Gonzalez at Movistar. There is another Puerto Rican guy in Spain now named Luis Molina. We're all from small countries in the Caribbean where there is not much cycling coverage.
It's good because when I was growing up, I didn't know of any Caribbean cyclists who were racing full-time. Before me we had Dominic Mayho who did some racing in Belgium. He was the one all of us looked up to growing up. In the past we've had other Bermudian cyclists, but he was the one we could look at and think 'we might be from Bermuda, but there is a chance.'
How does racing in the USA and Central America differ to racing in Europe? And what was the transition like?
The difference is just that the baseline level is just significantly higher in Europe. I'd say it's becoming more equal. I follow the USA race scene and the level is definitely getting better. When I first went to Europe I just realised that 50% of any u23 peloton are just really strong riders.
Everyone talks about Europe as where you really have to make it. That's the final stepping-stone and I definitely see why. The culture behind it has so much depth to it. In Spain, there are so many races. In the States, more are coming on the calendar every year, but it doesn't compare. In Spain, the amount of races you have in the pro field, you have as many in the amateur field. There's ten serious amateur stage races. Really high level. Then the one-day races and the Spanish Cup. Even the small races in little towns as well. So there is so much racing available to do. More than the States or the Caribbean. That means that the riders are way more experienced, having raced at such a high level at an early age. When I came to Europe it was a real slap in the face as to how strong people were over there.
What have you learned from two seasons racing in Europe?
I've learned a lot. My first year in Europe was definitely more of a learning experience than a racing experience. Last year, there were a lot of races, when it came down to energy conservation, being well positioned in the peloton, not going into climbs at the back. Positioning is the biggest thing I've learned. The more races you do, the more you're able to read them.
In the Commonwealth Games I knew how it was going to be raced. We were riding the day before going to look at the course. We were behind the England team and could hear them talking about the race. They just said "how many people are in the race tomorrow?" One of them said "100 and something." "OK so probably thirty after the first lap." When they say something like that, you know it's going to start early.
Right from the gun I surfed the front. I didn't follow every move, but if I saw a Fred Wright, Luke Plapp or Mark Cavendish making a move... especially with Fred Wright, he's had an amazing year. You know he can read a race well so if I saw him go I knew that was a move I had to be in. There was still the chance of missing it because it might be that one move that you don't follow that ends up staying away.
I followed a wheel and all of a sudden I heard behind Ben Turner saying "OK everyone work together." I looked back and the split had happened and I knew then that was going to be the move that went. So I think I've really learned how to read a race more.
That must have been an amazing day for you, riding in a move with a Tour de France winner and World Tour race winners.
It was. It was one of the hardest days. Even once the break had established and we had a couple of minutes it was still full gas the whole day. It never eased off that much. There was a lot of cohesion. It was raced hard but everyone took their turns. The gap was so unbudging, it never looked like it was going to come back once it was gone.
With two laps to go is when Plapp put in the first big attack over the climb after the finish line. From there, cohesion definitely started to break-down. He got pulled back, people kept doing turns but then the next person would go for an attack. It got to a point in that second-last lap when I ended up getting dropped, it was one of those situations when as you were catching someone, you could already feel the pace being turned up by the next guy. Luckily at that point being from a smaller nation the responsibility wasn't really on me, it was just to follow.
Obviously, there was no disappointment for me in that race. I was definitely happy with the way that I raced it. I think it would have been better if I was in the shape I am now. The climb that I got dropped on, after that climb when I looked back on it, it seemed like it settled back a lot more. The rest of the lap was pretty flat. It looked like the pace became more steady again. If I had that extra twenty seconds in my legs to stay in the wheels it could have been different. Obviously though I look back on it and I know in the moment that I didn't have that twenty seconds more. It was a really good experience and I've been riding the motivation that I had after that day.
After that, I decided that I wanted to go to Worlds. I asked Peter Dunne knowing that we don't have the UCI points this year from the Caribbean Championships to be able to go. That's why last year we had a full team in Belgium. Whenever we go to the Caribbean championships, we always come away with a lot of UCI points. Conor and I are two of the top TTers in the Caribbean and also Caitlin Conyers is unbeaten for a long time in the Caribbean champs. This year though it's later in the year so we don't have those points. But the UCI still granted me a spot to come. While I was waiting for that decision, I decided that if I do get the spot, I want to be in the best shape I can. I went up to Andorra and spent three weeks there doing a training camp to prepare which went really well. The week after Birmingham I was going out on training rides and just felt like a new rider. So I spoke to my coach and we decided to go to Andorra and get to the Worlds in the best shape possible. I feel like we've definitely done that.
At the Commonwealth Games, you also did a really good TT, finishing 11th. Do you see yourself as that kind of rider, a time-trialist/rouler type?
I'm not really sure. When I was younger I definitely called myself a time-trialist. Just because right from the start I was always good at it. I don't know if it's my physiology or whether I just have a good ability to suffer. When I started doing TTs on the local TT laps in Bermuda, my dad held all the records on them and they only started getting beaten after I'd been riding a bike for two or three years. Over time I've kept breaking his records on the different TT courses we have in Bermuda.
But I don't really like labelling myself as one thing. I think it's good to be a time-trialist, but it's better to be an all-round cyclist. Coming from Bermuda, our highest point is 85 meters. We don't have mountains or anything. But the whole island is undulating. You often find that riders from Bermuda are naturally quite punchy riders because the terrain is constantly up-and-down. So I definitely think I'm good when it comes to being punchy as well. The course here at the Worlds I'm really looking forward to because thirty-second to two-minute efforts are a point where I feel like I'm strong. I don't think the time-trialing is something I'll lose. I do enough of it to stay on top of it. For now at least, I still have that ability to really push myself and go deep in that discipline. So I don't know if I'd label myself as one thing, but I want to be good all-round.
What are your ambitions for the Worlds?
When I was in Andorra, most of my training was geared towards the TT. That was because it's a lot less luck-based. In a TT, the only thing you can do is to do the best you possibly can. Whereas in a road race, there's so many other factors. Especially in the u23s because it's just chaos. You could put in loads of work and be in the best shape of your life and then there's a massive pile up and it's all over. So the TT is my main focus here. I don't have any expectations here, I'm not saying that I want to finish in this place or I think I can finish there, I just know that right now I'm riding the strongest that I ever have, so really my goal is just to go out and execute the ride that I know that I can. Then wherever that puts me is where it puts me. I just want to do the best I can.
In the road race, being from Bermuda I'm going to start right at the back. The goal for the first lap will just be to get to the front then just try to stay in the first twenty riders and avoid the chaos that happens closer to the back. Last year in Flanders for the World Championships I had a similar goal and it worked pretty well, but I wasn't in the best shape so the second that I started to fatigue and I did move back in the group, I got stuck behind crashes. This year my goal will be to save as much energy as I can, avoid the chaos and then later in the race I'm sure the climb every lap will be decisive. It's only 1k, but it's a hard 1k. The middle 500 meters is 11% so it's going to be blown up there pretty much every lap. I assume that's where it's going to split. So my plan is just to save as much energy as I can and just try to follow the front.
I guess that this is only the second time that you've race against these riders, apart from the Spanish guys. Are you looking forward to testing yourself against them?
Yeah I've raced the Spanish guys in the past. Other than that, I know who the strong guys are so I'll know who to look out for, but it will be a similar case to the Commonwealth Games, just trying to be in the right moves when they go. I'm here alone with no team-mates so I'm not going to be able to rely on anyone else to follow other moves. I'll just have to pick-and-choose the good ones and hope that they are the right ones to follow.
And finally, what are your ambitions for next season? Do you think it's possible you could be riding for a conti team next year?
I think it will definitely depend a lot on how this week goes as to which teams I can talk to. I do have a manager helping me and talking to teams for me. There may be a few possibilities but it's really up in the air. If I get a really good result here then hopefully I can talk to some bigger teams. Next year I want to try to be at least at the continental level.
Kaden rides in the u23 TT on Monday 19th and the u23 RR on Friday 23rd.
