ONE TO WATCH Evie Richards
In January 2016 Evie Richards burst onto the scene and wrote her name into the history books as she won the first ever U23 Women’s Cyclo-cross World Championships, in Zolder, Belgium. Remarkably, the event was the then 18-year-old from Malvern’s first-ever international cross race.
Despite her inexperience on the biggest stage, Richards looked completely at ease, breezing away from her rivals to win comfortably by 35 seconds.
It was by pure chance, however, that Richards discovered cycling, only taking up the sport initially to help her fitness to compete in hockey. She joined the British Cycling Academy programme (then the Olympic Development programme) in 2015 as a mountain biker and has continued to combine cyclo-cross with mtb ever since, with one eye on competing at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
Remarkably, after Richards’s breakthrough win in the Worlds in 2016, she admitted she didn’t feel she could ride a cyclo-cross bike properly, rather it was strength and a natural aptitude for the sport that had seen her succeed so far.
She followed her victory in 2016 in the Worlds with a bronze medal in the race this January, and won her second consecutive British National Cyclo-cross Championships title last winter, as well as a round of the National Trophy.
Despite a love of racing in the cold, snow, ice and mud, 20-year-old Richards seems equally content chasing the sunshine around the world on her travels, judging by her Instagram account.