Evie & Rainbows

A short while back I had a long chat with mountain bike cross country World Champion Evie Richards, here’s just a very short extract from the conversation.

ST; You started as a mountainbiker and then turned to cyclo cross (and won a U23 World title twice), how did that happen?

ER: It was mountainbiking first, and then when I moved to Manchester (with the British Cycling team) that was when I started riding cyclo cross.

I lived with another girl, who was the only other person I would ever see, so I was training a lot on my own. 

The coach was very keen on us doing a lot of road training, he didn’t really like us riding much on the mountainbike, but agreed to let us race cross at the weekend. That was what gave me the love of the mud and being outdoors at the weekends, which was something I wasn’t getting from mountainbiking. I just love riding the local cross series races, and would go every weekend. It gave me that community that I’d been missing since moving to Manchester. That was the year I went to the World Championships in Norway, my first international race. I was thrown into the deep end.

A year earlier, one of my first cross races was Bradford National Champs. I remember going on a GB MTB camp at a Premier Inn (it was tagged on to the race) with Ffion Griffiths and her saying to me that green is good and brown is bad, and told me that as long as I remembered that I’d be fine – and to get of the bike if I couldn’t ride. I won the Nationals then, but it was just something extra I was doing for mountainbike training.

ST: Do you prefer cyclo cross or mountainbiking?

ER: It’s hard for me to say. Probably 2-years ago, before the start of Covid I would have said that my heart was in cyclo cross – my heart is in it, I love it so much.

But now I feel like I’ve learned about the racing of mountainbiking better. I used to go out really hard and race frantically from the gun. Now I’ve learned a better, more tactical and thinking way to race. Combine that with the technical skills I’ve been working on over recent years that has really helped.

Before I would get so scared, I was so worried about breaking a bone, which almost took out the love of descending. Now I love descending so much, and over the last 2 years have fallen more and more in love with mountainbiking.

With mountainbiking I just love the atmosphere. We go to incredible places and are with all of the downhill team, it’s just the best, like a big festival. When you roll up to the massive Trek tent and eat dinner together it’s amazing.

With cross it’s winter and everyone goes back to their camper vans. I’m a sociable person so just love mountainbiking, but I suppose the shortness or a cross race, all of the mud, the running, being in winter I really love that, but mountainbiking has a special place in my heart.

ST: What’s your favourite kind of riding?

ER: I love the mid. Think of Namur, or Les Gets last year; it’s chaos and I Love it. I feel really calm, and if you crash they everyone is cheering. It’s unpredictable, and will always be my favourite to race in.