Surprise entrant Culverwell claims unsurprising victory
A SURPRISE winner took the honours in the first road race of 2022 – Trinity Racing professional Sam Culverwell.
The surprise factor was Culverwell’s turnout, with it coming as no shock that the Guernsey cycling success story took top honours on the L’Eree circuit after he appeared on the start line.
Roughly 20 months after his last local road race and having represented Trinity in Belgium two days prior, the 21-year-old enjoyed a good run-out and did in fact find some decent rivalry from the top locals.
This included a race-long challenge from Commonwealth Games man James Roe, who pushed him to a sprint after six laps of the 7.8-mile circuit.
‘Nice sprint finish with “Romes”, a bit like old times really,’ he said after winning in 1hr 51min. 59.6sec. – 0.2sec. clear of Roe.
‘The pair of us used to chip off the front a fair bit, so bit of a throwback there and I managed to get him at the end, but credit to all the guys – they’re all super strong and Guernsey cycling’s in a really good place, because that was a proper tough race.’
Marc Cox made a bold break earlier on but suffered mechanical issues and fell behind on the fifth lap, holding on for third another 47sec. back.
The adrift Alex Van Katwyk, Mike Serafin and Matt Osborn completed the Division One placings.
In a small Division Two field, veteran rider and Velo Club president Alex Margison took the honours over five laps after making over a minute on Jason Kon in a strong final circuit.
The four-lap Division Three race hosted a good duel between two up-and-coming female cyclists – Jade Packham and Jamy Petit.
Packham won their sprint-off by 0.7sec. and in doing so stopped the winner of the previous week’s time trial completing an early double this new road season.
Less than 48 hours earlier, Culverwell had competed at Belgium’s Youngster Coast Challenge and placed 70th in a 245-man field brimming with international U23 talent.
Hindered by two crashes, he eventually finished 3min. 14sec. off the lead after supporting a team who had star sprinter Luke Lamperti making the overall top five.
‘I just felt like I lost a bit of the snap on some of those attacks today from a bit of fatigue, but it’s all good training at the end of the day and just pleased to be racing here,’ added a young cyclist who hopes for more opportunities to link up with the Guernsey squad ahead of the Games in Birmingham this summer.
