Sam sees off super Mario

The 18-year-old fought valiantly on Sunday only for a race-ending tumble to put an unfortunate dampener on his weekend.

However, he is still intent on lining up tomorrow to bow out from what has overall been a superb stint of racing.

Culverwell’s win on Saturday came after once again beating ‘Kermesse King’ Mario Willems – this time in a head-to-head sprint.

In the 111km Varsenare event, he and his main rival had ridden vigorously over the last two laps to distance three pursuing riders.

It soon became clear that a sprint was due. Rightly wary of the tactical shrewdness of a veteran with over 400 past ‘kermesse’ wins, Culverwell was somewhat reluctant to lead it out.

Willems tried his best not to let the youngster pass, but ultimately a superbly-timed surge allowed the powerful Sarnian to finish two seconds clear.

Culverwell clocked 2hrs 28min. to take his second win and fourth ‘podium’ from eight races in the country.

‘I felt really strong in the race and aside from Mario, I could see the other three were struggling so I knew I should be able to crack them,’ said Culverwell.

‘It was basically “How do I beat Mario?”.

‘I bridged across and he was riding really strongly and coming towards the last half-lap he was looking back a lot, so it made it difficult for me to attack him.

‘It was quite difficult to get enough recovery after doing your turn at the front... I was going to back my sprint and I finished faster than he did, so I had the better sprint, which was fortunate.’

Culverwell had been shackled with an unfortunate ‘DNF’ late into the following day’s race.

Attempting to corner in building rain and with wind blowing into the apex, Culverwell took a painful slide and became one of many riders relegated to the sidelines that day.

Despite a case of road rash and some unrelated illness, the teenager still hopes to ‘see how it goes’ tomorrow.