The head of the National Games Coordination Office on Monday said the overall time taken for a cross-border cycling race on Sunday was shorter than expected.

The event was held as a test race for the National Games that will be staged in the Greater Bay Area next year.

Yeung Tak-keung told an RTHK radio programme that the race went very smoothly, and cyclists completed the event safely.

There were also no special incidents.

"The cyclists rode slightly faster than we thought. At first, we expected them to take around an hour and 30 minutes to complete the Hong Kong section of the race. But it turned out they completed the leg in an hour and 22 minutes," Yeung said.

"That meant that for the whole event, whether heading to Hong Kong Disneyland after passing the bridge as well as heading back to the mainland, it was faster than we anticipated."

He said cyclists and their supporting crews told the office after the event that the race distance of 230km posed a challenge for them, and they also struggled with strong winds on the bridge, as well as light rain in Zhuhai and Macau.

But Yeung said the cyclists managed to go faster once they had adapted to the environment.

He also said the race route is suitable for the National Games, but did not rule out the possibility of making adjustments.