ONTHEFASTTRACK

UCI World Champion Neah Evans on team spirit, student life and her speedy rise to the podium

Scottish rider Neah Evans took up cycling aged 24, making her a late-bloomer compared to most. But she’s been on a rapid ascent ever since she took to the track at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome ten years ago. Since then, the endurance cyclist, who hails from Ayrshire, has proved herself world class. She has won gold in the Team Pursuit an astounding six times at the UEC European Track Championships, taken silver with her team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and topped it all off with a glorious gold in the points race at the 2022 UCI Track World Championships. Now she’s gearing up for another furious competition at the Championships, and this time, she says it means more than ever…

The UCI World Championships is always special, but when it’s on the velodrome that you learned to ride, there’s an extra something there. I can’t wait to hear the crowd. I’m not sure if it’s the acoustics in there, but I know for a fact that in Glasgow, when people start cheering, it is loud. It’s special to be in front of a home crowd, especially when you recognise faces. Some of them will probably have seen me falling off a bike when I was just getting into cycling!

I very much enjoyed being a UCI World Champion, and I’ll definitely be looking to come out with a new jersey this time round. In the run up to The Championships, you don’t know what events you’re going to be selected for until very late in the process, so it feels quite uncertain. Then when you are selected, there’s this huge pressure to achieve, especially if you’re defending a title.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by stress and anxiety, but you can’t let those nerves get to you. I tell myself, “Great. I’ve done the training. I’m in the best shape I can be. What will be will be. Just enjoy it” I think all those years I spent horse riding have taught me to handle stress quite well. You very quickly learn that if you’re nervous, that will transfer to the horse, and that’s when you can have a disaster.

Horse riding was my passion growing up. It was only because my horse was injured that I started looking around for another sport. I was at university studying to be a vet and my horse fell the night before my first exam. She was out of action for a while, and although my parents had always been super-supportive, I remember Mum saying, “Look, you’re going to have to find a cheaper sport!”

Being into endurance sports herself, Mum suggested I give running a go. So I joined the university running club, and I loved the balance it gave me. My priorities then were socialising, running, then studying, in that order. I’m not ashamed to admit I enjoyed the student lifestyle. I was going out drinking multiple times a week and having so much fun. If my friends from university saw me now they’d be quite aghast at the change!

When an injury in my final year stopped me running, my dad said, “Listen, you’d actually be better at cycling than running anyway. You’d love the track.” I’d never ridden a fixed-gear bike and wasn’t very into the idea, but he sorted me out with a bike, and encouraged me to get accreditation at the velodrome. It says something about my personality that I gave it a go and was immediately like, “Oh, actually, this is really fun!” It snowballed pretty quickly after that.