Evans eyes Nibali clash

Dan Evans looking to take talent to a bigger stage

Newly crowned national hill-climb champion Dan Evans has said he wants to take on Vincenzo Nibali and contest the Taiwan KOM Challenge in 2018.

The Welshman won the hill-climb championships in Hedley-on-the-hill in Northumberland on Sunday, completing the 1,542m climb in a course record of 3:54.3; 2016 winner Adam Kenway (Raleigh-gac) finished five seconds adrift in second. Kieran Savage (Team B38underpin Racing) was third.

It is the ASSOS-EQUIPE UK rider’s second national title after his 2014 triumph, but with next year’s Nationals taking place at the shorter and steeper Shelsley Walsh in Worcestershire, he may turn his attention to grander prizes.

Nibali, a four-time Grand Tour winner, won the Taiwan KOM Challenge, which saw 600 riders climb 106km from sea level to 3,275m atop Wuling Pass, in mid-october; both Nibali and the women’s winner Emma Pooley won over £12,000.

“It’s a short course next year, a two-minute climb, so I don’t think I’ll focus on the Nationals too much. I want to try some different events, like Taiwan. In a head-to-head, I think I am a match for anyone in the world,” the 36-year-old told CW.

“If I rode with Worldtour guys for five hours and then did a climb, I’d have no chance, but in a straight shoot-out up a climb, if you look at my numbers, I think I can beat anyone.”

Evans won 12 of the 13 hill-climbs he rode this autumn. “I’m not driven by being the best, but I just don’t want to get beaten and that’s my motivation,” he said.

The 2016 champion Kenway, meanwhile, is already excited about next year’s championships. “I didn’t lose; Dan put in a really great ride and beat me,” he said. “It’s a two-and-a-halfminute climb next year and it’s steep. I’ll have to make sure Dan keeps that trophy warm for me.”

Women’s domination

Women’s winner Joscelin Lowden — who has only been racing for two seasons — stormed up the hill to take her maiden national stripes ahead of Mary Wilkinson (Yorkshire RC) and Team WNT rider Hayley Simmonds.

With three-time winner Maryka Sennema no longer racing for national titles, Lowden wants to dominate the scene. “I’ll happily step up,” she said. “Maryka has always been so supportive of me and last year when I popped up at hill-climbs I did really well. If I can do as well as she did that would be great.

“I knew that if I put in a really good ride I would be in with a good chance.”