Published: 30th Jul 2024 Images: Scottish Cycling

BlogHer: Horses, bikes and rainbow bands

With July marking the start of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, there could be no better candidate for July’s BlogHer than Aberdeenshire’s Neah Evans, who heads to France in the quest of more silverware to add to her collection.

As a kid I vaguely remember my brothers having bikes, and I’d get their hand me downs, and we played with bikes as kids. I vaguely remember cycling round the kitchen island too. 

But I had a pony, so I spent my time riding my pony and if the boys were playing with bikes I’d maybe get involved but I wasn’t fussed by it. Sometimes we’d go out for the day with our parents and bikes might be involved, but it was my older brothers who would go off on cycling trips with my Dad, mountain biking in the Lakes District and stuff, but I’d rather be doing stuff with the horse.  

So it’s funny how things work out… 

I rode horses all the way up to my first year of university where I was juggling things, and getting home a fair bit to carry on eventing and things were going quite well. But my horse ended up getting quite a bad cut on her leg, and I ended up at Vet School the day before my first exam – that was a bit awkward as they were like ‘should you not be studying’!  

Whilst my horse was rehabbing I obviously didn’t have the money to get another horse being a student, so I had to take a break whilst she was recovering, and at that point I started doing hill running! I wanted something to do and it had to be cheap, as my student loan went on either horses or going out!  

I did hill running until my final year of university, when I was ill and injured a lot – I think student lifestyle had caught up with me – and my Dad said I should try cycling. To be fair to him, when I ran, he always used to say ‘I think you’d be better at cycling than running’.  

I got one of my brothers old bikes, and I was able to ride that when I couldn’t run, and then my Dad booked me onto the first accreditation session at the velodrome – this would have been 2014. I’d never been on a velodrome, never ridden a fixed gear bike, never had clip in pedals – I did it because he’d booked it and thought I better go along! I honestly thought, I’d do one session and that would be it, but it was actually really good fun! 

So at that point I thought I might as well do my accreditation, so I did the four sessions and then got chatting to someone and spoke to someone from Glasgow Wheelers who invited me out on a few of their club rides, and then I started to do a bit of Track League, and it just snowballed. 

Glasgow Uni had a cycling team, which I didn’t even know about, and they asked me to do BUCS. What I later realised is the standard in each sport really varies – I’d done BUCS for running and horse riding and it was really hard. So at first I was like no way, I’m not doing it, but it turned out it was a pretty low standard and I medalled in every event! I think the standard is a bit better now! 

Through that I got to know Jess Lee, who knew a lot of people on the Scottish Cycling programme. After Commies, Scottish Cycling opened up sessions to a wider group, and I got an invite to go along through Jess, and the rest is history! 

I often get asked if I wish I’d have found cycling sooner, and I usually say no. 

Everything I’d experienced up to that point has made me the person and the cyclist I am, and I can’t change it. But I do see people who’ve started at a much younger age and see how much they’ve achieved. But is there a finite time in sport – it might just be that my time comes later in life. A lot of athletes have burned out and stopped before I’d even been in a velodrome. The life experience I’ve had before cycling have made me quite robust and resilient to the trials and tribulations that come along with being an elite level athlete – people think it’s all sunshine and roses, but there are a lot of turbulent times and it isn’t easy. The joy you get overrides that, which is why we all do it, but I perhaps appreciate the athlete lifestyle more than some people, as I’ve worked full-time as a Vet and so have had a proper job – I’m in no rush to go back to that! 

With Paris just a couple of weeks away, I really appreciate the ‘job’ I have now and can’t wait to get out to France. The last couple of years have been amazing, so let’s hope for more of the same – Paris already has a special place in my heart. 

Being on the GB programme, and in the TP squad, I’d medalled quite a few times at Worlds, but it was frustrating to have been so close to a World title, but never got one. So that moment in Paris, to get your first World title, was so special.  

Being able to say you’re a World medallist is such a huge achievement, and for some people that’s the career highlight, but I always felt I was capable of becoming World Champion, and in cycling it’s such an iconic thing because you get to wear the rainbows – it’s like extra special. 

Then coming to Glasgow for a home World Championships, the velodrome where I learnt to ride, a lot of extra stuff around it – and to get another World title was amazing. It also proved I wasn’t a one trick pony and it wasn’t a fluke!  

Another question I often get asked by the media is which World title means more, and my answer is always that they’re very different. 

The Points Race was amazing because it was my first one. The Madison was extra special because it was in Glasgow. I’d been really focused on it, and put a lot of work into it. I was supposed to be doing it with Katie, but then fairly late it swapped and I was doing it with Elle, so I had to readjust, but I had a real confidence in the plan going into it. I put a lot of pressure on myself given all the prep I’d done, so to pull it off was really satisfying. I actually raced it with a torn hip flexor too! 

Heading to Paris again in two weeks we’ll try and keep the Madison to a similar format for what we did for Worlds – it clearly worked! 

A huge thank you to Neah for penning an incredible blog, and what shines through for us, is that it’s never too late to get on a bike, find that love for cycling and maybe push yourself further than you ever thought was possible.  

If you would like to tell your cycling story for our monthly Scottish Cycling BlogHer article, please email Melanie, our Women and Girls Development Manager, on: [email protected]