Neah Evans isn’t done with making up for lost time just yet.
An Olympic debutant aged 31, Evans is late to the top of track cycling and now the glue in Great Britain’s world-leading women’s endurance team.
The Scot is trending ever upwards with this week’s UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Paris her biggest competition since Tokyo.
“People look at your age and that’s the bottom line,” says the Scot, “but it’s far more important to look at time in the sport and mine is a lot less than other people!
“I still feel like the one on the upward trajectory. I’m still learning every day.”
This year Evans has switched to be coached by partner Jonny Wale, a maverick self-trained Scottish cyclist.
She won three medals at the Commonwealth Games, two on the track and one on the road, an immediate vindication of the decision.
Evans contracted Covid-19 during August’s European Championships and emerged deflated from Munich, finishing fourth twice and fifth in the points race.
But the Langbank rider feels she’s found a new lease of life with a new, tailored coaching set-up.
Evans said: “I’m not always the best at admitting that I’ve bitten off more than I can chew and need to step back.
“He can just say, ‘no, no, we need to adjust’ and we’ve made it much more specific, factoring in a bit more recovery. When we hit a session, we hit it hard and we back off completely.
“It’s really fun and it’s exciting for me. I’ve learned a huge amount about what works for me and how we can use this knowledge to build for Paris.
“It was a dream come true to go to Tokyo and come away with a medal but I’m very competitive and there’s a big part of me that thinks we can do better.
“It’s exciting to see improvements already. The Games was part of the journey.”
The British women’s endurance squad have been dealt a variety of challenges in recent months, collectively and individually.
British Cycling’s Manchester velodrome has been closed for refurbishment, limiting the team’s training time, with programme coach Monica Greenwood stepping down.
Into the breach steps Australian nine-time world champion Cameron Meyer, who has already made an impression on the squad.
Evans said: “He’s got a positive personality. We’re all aware it’s a huge ask for him to come in and control the squad so close to the World Championships.
“The Australians very much have a different way of working. He’s got things lined up in the future that are quite different and some of the changes so far are quite subtle.
“Even the way we do track warm-up, he’s changed that. It feels like a much bigger change than it actually is because we’ve got so used to our way. It’s quite fun.”
Evans will ride the Madison with reigning Olympic champion Laura Kenny, the team pursuit and the points race at Vélodrome National, which will play host to track cycling at Paris 2024.
“We’ve only done three or four proper track sessions together,” she said. “It’s an exciting team but if you scratch the surface, I don’t think anyone’s in the place they’d ideally like to be.
“Glass half full, there are a lot of good opportunities. There isn’t quite the same pressure without Olympic qualifying points on the line.
“Hopefully it will act as a bit of a springboard to show us where we are, what we’ve gone and then boom, we’re straight into Paris.”
Sportsbeat 2022