Hopkins Excited About Season With French Team
[Written by Stephen Wright]
Kaden Hopkins says he hopes to become a more consistent rider as he builds towards his first season with his new French team.
Hopkins signed a one-year deal with Vendée U, the development squad for one of the top European teams, TotalEnergies, in October and has spent the past week acclimatising to his new environment at the team house in the southwest of France.
He heads to Alicante, Spain, on Friday [January 13] with his Vendée U teammates, who will join the TotalEnergies squad for a ten-day training camp before the start of a busy campaign next month.
“I’ve been settling in well since arriving at the team house,” said Hopkins, who previously raced for Equipo Essax, the elite under-23 team of the Sax Cycling Club in Spain.
“I’m riding strong and in great shape for the pre-season in Alicante, which I’m familiar with from my time in Spain and know the roads, the climbs. It’s the perfect area for training.
“The team will do some testing and get an idea of where I am in my preparations.”
The 22-year-old said he learned plenty of valuable lessons from his two years riding for Equipo Essax, which will stand him in good stead as he takes the next step in his professional cycling career.
“My goal is to be a little more consistent,” Hopkins told Bernews. “Last year, I was strong at the start and end of the season but not on my game in the middle.
“I know what I did wrong in trying to pile on the training and hit form too soon.
“My goal is to be the best all-round rider I can. Time-trials have always come naturally to me, perhaps because of my mentality towards them. Luckily, this team does a lot of time-trials. I also want to become more capable in road races.”
The Bermudian believes Vendée U will be the perfect fit for him at this stage of his burgeoning career and said the terrain in France suits his racing style.
“The team has great support and a great programme, and France has a great time-trial scene,” said Hopkins, who attracted interest from New Zealand-based Global8 Cycling, a UCI Continental-level team in the third tier of professional cycling. “It’s not just mountains and mountains in every race.
“I was talking with another team, but Vendée U was always where I wanted to be. After the UCI World Championships [where he finished thirteenth in the time-trial in Wollongong, Australia] and the Commonwealth Games [where he finished eleventh in the time-trial and fourteenth in the road race in Birmingham], they asked me to do some training tests. They monitored my performances last season and were happy with my training data.”
Hopkins also has a hectic international calendar this year. His schedule could include the Pan American Road and Track Championships in Panama City, Panama, the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador, El Salvador, the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile, and the UCI World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
“I’ve got several big targets this year internationally,” he added. “I’ve spoken to my team about the competitions and will have the freedom and focus to go to them and get the best results I can.”
