Mountain Bike Icons – the Evie Richards story

Back in 2021 Malvern’s Evie Richards upturned the mountain bike form book and raced to glory in the Elite XCO World Championship, becoming the first British female racer ever to do so. This is her story.

off.road.cc Staff

Feb 24 2023

Feature

[Words by Steve Thomas]

After a string of impressive Mountain Bike World Cup performances, while riding for the Trek Factory Racing team, Evie Richards stepped things up some more at the end of the 2021 race season. The British rider upstaged the best old hands of the sport to become the UCI Elite Women’s Cross Country World Champion, a first-ever for a British racer.

There were those who thought that the bubbly Malvern rider had perhaps struck lucky on the day, but she quickly proved them wrong, as she followed the World Championship success with two World Cup round wins in the closing moments of the season, demonstrating the amazing class and ability of the rising young star – one who had already won two Cyclo-cross World Championships as an Under 23 rider.

The early years

Growing up Evie - now 25 years old - knew very little about cycling. Although from a young age, she knew that she wanted to become an Olympian, she recounts.

“From as young as I can remember I literally just wanted to go to the Olympics. From 6-7 years old I was just so competitive at everything. For every Olympics we would go on holiday as a family and watch everything, from the opening ceremony, all through the night – we would stay up and play Monopoly and watch every event.

I started high school and took up every sport. In my head, I thought that if I did everything then maybe I would go to the Olympics at something. I just wanted to represent my country in a sport and I didn’t care what it was. I wanted to wear a GB top and represent my country, and that was what got me into cycling.

Cycling was the only one I wasn’t doing (initially) and, at the same time, my dad got a bike through the cycle-to-work scheme and we used to do run-rides around the hills: one of us running and one riding, swapping over as we went.

I just loved how much you would see on a bike. If I went for a run, I would see a bit of the hill, but on a bike, you would just go for miles. Then I took a work experience job in a farm shop, which then became a Saturday job. The only way to get there was on a bike, and so with my first wages I bought a cyclocross bike. My dad would ride there with me and the money I earned later paid for bike parts and then a new bike.”

Malvern has a legendary status in British mountain biking terms, and that legacy was about to intervene in Evie’s cycling journey.

“At a similar time, Tracy Moseley had started doing some coaching sessions in her woods. I remember going there and Beth Crumpton coming along in her GB kit. In hockey we’d never had that - actually meeting someone who represents your country. It was just down the road, and it felt so tangible and close.”

The highlights

“2021 was a really big year for me. Going to the Olympics was why I started cycling, and so that was a massive highlight, and something I’d always dreamed of. And then, off the back of that to win World Champs and to win World Cups that I never thought I would ever win was definitely the biggest highlight, and just to be in a really good place and to be really happy when I won those too, I look back and have amazing memories of those months.”

Being a World Champion

Although she had already won two UCI World Championship U23 titles in cyclo-cross, the significance of those hallowed rainbow bands had never really hit home for Evie, and even becoming the Elite Cross Country Olympics World Champion took time to sink in.

“I still think it’s crazy - when I look back. I was just so shocked, I didn’t go into that race even thinking I’d get a medal, and so to come away being World Champion - it took me a long time to process it. I do feel so proud, it was something I’d wanted to do in my career, but I didn’t think that I’d have a chance to do it so young.

To of had the chance to wear the rainbow jersey so early – and even now, when I get my new team kit and I still have the rainbows (on the sleeves and collar), I just feel really proud, it’s always a “pinch me” kind of moment.”

The lost year and the lows

Although it’s usually applied to road racing, the curse of the rainbow jersey has haunted many a rider over the years. Despite winning a Commonwealth Games gold medal in the Women's Cross-Country Mountain Bike event at Cannock Chase Evie’s 2022 season and rainbow run were also somewhat cursed.

“For me, the 2022 season is one I’d like to forget. I picked up an injury in the first stage race of the season, and just when I thought it was getting better and fitness was coming back, I got COVID. And, in Brazil, I got a really bad sickness bug and so 2022 was all the bad luck that I didn’t get in 2021, and all the bad luck ever was just crammed into the same year.

"I feel like with being an athlete, people don’t always see that you’re on a bit of a roller coaster; you’re always on the highest of highs, or it’s quite low lows – it’s not really consistent. I’ve had a fair few lows; like going from the World Champs in 2021 to having the worst season of my career in the rainbow jersey, which was really hard, having to deal with the pressure of being World Champion as well as injury and loads of sickness, it was a really rough year.

Although it was a low, I did learn a lot, and I hope that it will make me stronger in 2023.”

Winter rebuild

During her career, Evie has weathered a number of storms, although that doesn’t make the rebuild and recovery process any easier to deal with. Following on from the disappointing 2022 season she’s been working hard on getting her show back to the top of the billing again.

“A lot of the last winter’s training has been based around local cyclo-cross races; I’ve also done loads of miles on the bike, with lots of good efforts, but the highlight of the winter weeks has been going somewhere different each weekend to ride a cross race. It’s been really fun to meet up-and-coming riders and to almost go back to my roots. It’s been a very good workout, and I can also train and ride home after the local events. We go to them in the van with my mom and dad and the dog, so it’s a lovely weekend.

I’ve also been really focused in the gym, to make sure that I don’t have any injuries in the coming year, and have also kept it fun by doing things like swimming – which I love to do.

There have been some very tough times, and when you look at the British winter, it’s really grim at times. Sometimes I think that if I was just sitting by the fire, it would be really lovely, but when you’ve got to do four-hour training with efforts in misty, cold and rainy conditions, it can be quite tough.

But I’ve just changed coaches and so it’s felt very different. My training is also now quite different, and so that sparks a bit of joy and excitement back into my love for riding. Since I’ve changed my training I‘ve been super happy and found that spark that I think I was missing a bit, and I think I’ve got that back with this new coaching style.”

One step at a time can be hard to take for an elite athlete, and yet Evie recognises that she needs to take her ride back to the top one gear and one climb at a time.

“I’d like to just step up from last year. I didn’t really finish a race feeling good last year, and to start with I‘d like to finish a race and feel like Evie as a racer, and then hopefully progress on that and get better and better in the World Cups. The World Champs is my aim – I’d really like to win the rainbow there, and so just progressing up to be peaking for that is the plan.”

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