CARIBBEAN PIONEER

Teniel Campbell endured nine weeks in complete isolation inside her home during the covid-19 crisis before things started to unravel. She moved to Bottanuco, on the edge of Bergamo, Italy, last December in what was supposed to be the start of her new life as a professional cyclist. But instead she found herself inside the coronavirus red zone when the virus swept across northern Italy during the peak of the first wave of the pandemic this spring. The 23-year-old was in a foreign land, had just joined the Valcar-Travel & Service team, and was on the other side of the world from her family and friends in Trinidad and Tobago, with no idea when she’d be able to travel home and see them again. She wasn’t allowed to go outside. The streets were deserted and the only sound came from the constant ambulances and ringing of the church bells. The only limited human contact she had was with the people she saw at the supermarket. She was isolated from everything she knew and also unable to do the one thing she’d moved to Europe for: ride her bike.

The lockdown didn’t seem too bad at first. Campbell says herself she isn’t the most social person, so spending every hour, day-in day-out, on her own wasn’t that hard. In fact, she saw the isolation as a challenge and turned indoor training into a competition, making bets with her coach to smash her personal bests.

Then in April the Italian government announced they were extending the lockdown for another two weeks until