‘Living legacy’ Evans dreaming of Glasgow Games

Neah Evans wanted to be a showjumper, but an injury to her horse prevented her riding. So she took up fell running instead, only for anaemia to curtail that.

In her early 20s, feeling gloomy and losing her love for sport, the veterinary student grudgingly accepted dad Malcolm’s surprise booking of a ‘give it a go’ cycling session at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.

Evans, who had cycled as a child, had never been on a bike without brakes. She’d never used clip-in pedals. She’d never even been inside a velodrome.

But with Glasgow 2014 looming and the track – built for the event – open to the public, she found herself making a decision that would change her life.

“I almost just went to appease my dad, but it was a sliding doors moment because I absolutely loved it and everything just snowballed,” she tells BBC Sport Scotland.

And how. Evans is speaking in that same velodrome 11 years later as the owner of world and European golds, as well as silvers from two separate Olympics and four Commonwealth Games medals.

“If it wasn’t for Glasgow 2014, and this place hadn’t been built, I wouldn’t be a cyclist,” says Evans, who confesses that her “lively” student lifestyle took precedence over attending any events at those Games.

“When people talk about legacy and those buzzwords, I normally kind of go, ‘oh yeah, does it actually work?’. But I’m living proof that it could change your life.”

Not that it happened immediately for Evans, who still readily describes herself as “an accidental athlete”.

Cycling remained a hobby while she qualified and worked as a vet. And it was only a year before the Gold Coast Games of 2018 that she became a full-time athlete.

She went to Australia as part of Team Scotland expecting to discover she wasn’t good enough to be a professional and destined for a life working with animals.

But Evans won silver and bronze and suddenly a whole new career opened up in front of her. “I was like ‘huh, I’m quite good at this’,” she recalls.

“It was a turning point. That’s why the Commonwealth Games are really special for me because I can pinpoint that as when I transitioned from being a vet who did a bit of cycling to seeing myself as a cyclist.”

With all that in mind, the Games returning to Glasgow next summer will mark a particular high point for Evans.

In the wake of a second successful Olympics, the 34-year-old’s focus has switched to road racing for this season. It has not gone well, with a succession of calamities befalling her, but she will be back on the boards next year.

Having competed – and won – at the Worlds in Glasgow in 2023, she knows what the sights, sounds and smells of the event will be and is using those memories to propel her through her ongoing struggles.

“When you’re faced with a four-hour bike ride in the rain and don’t really fancy it, you think, ‘come on, the Games are coming up’ and that keeps you going,” she says.