Dream comes true for Culverwell
SAM CULVERWELL enjoyed the greatest race of his budding career to break a stacked elite field last Sunday.
Having discussed his own professional ambitions just days prior, the 18-year-old dropped Olympic track champion Ed Clancy and many other established stars to win the Coalville Wheelers Road Race in the Midlands via a solo breakaway.
Culverwell donned Team Estera kit for his third National B start of the season and set off in controlled fashion for the undulating 121km race.
He realised the danger of an early attack near the lap point and bridged hard into the wind, latching onto a group featuring split representation from several major pro outfits. The group thinned to nine at half-way and the following laps brimmed with breaks, with Saint Piran’s Steve Lampier and Vitus’ Mikey Mottram driving the main attacks.
Culverwell kept everything under control with his smart riding, remaining surprisingly fresh and drawing a casual lead off a turn with just over a lap left.
Although he approached the bell ominously tracked by a large group of pursuers just 10sec. behind, the Guernsey youngster maintained a resolute solo effort to further gap the somewhat complacent pack.
He blasted up the concluding hill to win by half-a-minute as Ribble’s Jacob Tipper snatched the runner-up spot over Mottram.
Culverwell described himself as ‘ecstatic’ and paid tribute to the class of the field he was up against.
‘They were attacking a lot and they’re all riding really strong, so it was a really good race,’ he said.
‘I’m really happy to have been able to solo away like that from that group.’
Mentor Gary Wallbridge added: ‘This is by far his biggest result ever – it’s an unbelievable result. I said to Sam before that it’s the type of thing you dream about but it doesn’t actually happen.’
Estera team-mate James Roe enjoyed a strong mid-pack finish.
