Jinxed Culverwell is sidelined again

The Trinity Racing professional had hoped to open his season at the Fleche Ardennaise on Liberation Day, but that race fell at late notice to Covid-stricken Belgium’s restrictions on all but the very top level of professional cycling.

Culverwell had already travelled to the area with his Continental team when the Wallonia-Brussels Cycling Federation called the race off, considering it, even at UCI 1.2 level, ‘non-professional’.

Culverwell is still out in Belgium with Trinity and has been awaiting news of any alternative race plans.

Meanwhile, the Tour de la Mirabelle stage race is still set to go ahead in France from 27 May, while next month’s ‘Baby Giro’ is lined up to follow its Grand Tour counterpart, the Giro d’Italia, which started on Saturday. But the short-term future remains uncertain for the 20-year-old, who saw his much-anticipated 2020 season wrecked by the pandemic.

After racing only once abroad in 2020 and seeing the planned March restart scrapped due to Covid, he has been itching to get going.

‘Hopefully when we get the season kicked off, it will be full gas from then and we have an uninterrupted season from May onwards,’ he said last month.

There is also a potential Tour of Britain appearance in September on the agenda.

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