Aberdeenshire rider Neah Evans was happy to get miles under her belt ahead of the European Championships after finishing 17th in the time trial at the Commonwealth Games.
Evans moved from track to road on Thursday morning and posted a time of 43:45.34 round the 28.8km circuit at Wolverhampton’s West Park.
She admits her preparation for the road events has been limited, due to her focus on the velodrome, but feels a challenging course was what she needed ahead of the Euros in Munich next week.
“It was good fun. I had zero expectations coming into it,” said Evans. “If it had been a course like the national time-trial, I would have been right up for it.
“When we recced this we realised this was not a course for me, which is kind of nice as I was pretty relaxed and could see where I’m at.
“The crowd was unreal, which can be a curse because when you’re suffering you’re just like ‘leave me alone in my world of pain!’. But everyone was telling me I was doing well and it was really good fun.
“I’ve got the European Championships next week and I needed to do a hard effort this week. It just so happens I put the number on my back and made it a really hard effort.”
Preparing ahead of road race
Evans, who hails from Cuminestown near Turriff, is not done yet at these Games. Her final event comes on Sunday, with the road race in Warwick.
“I haven’t done a road race in a long time,” she said. “My last one was the Tour of Scotland in 2019 and I hadn’t done many before that.
“Anna (Shackley) was there and she asked when my last road race was. I said ‘when I raced with you’, so I don’t think I filled with her with confidence.
“I think it’s pan-flat and I haven’t decided whether that’s good or bad. I did the road race in Gold Coast, where it worked surprisingly well for me as people were getting shelled out the back and the fact I had no tactics was fine.
“I’m hoping teams like Australia and New Zealand might make it quite hard so it’ll be more about survival.”
It has been a successful games for Evans, who turned 32 on Monday on the day of the scratch race.
After emerging with two medals from the Gold Coast Games in 2018, she has matched that tally this time around with silver in points race and bronze in the individual pursuit.
Enjoying the atmosphere
“There’s been a really good team atmosphere and I’m lucky because my priority was the track, which went well even if I am a tiny bit disappointed,” said Evans. “The pressure is off me, I can enjoy the atmosphere.
“I’ve done what I came to do and now I can enjoy the experience.”
The one frustration was the scratch race, where Evans made a move to the front of the field ahead of the final lap to push for gold, only to be beaten by British Cycling team-mate Laura Kenny and slip out of the medals.
“I said to everyone going into it I wanted to come away with a gold medal,” said Evans. “I went in with a plan and I didn’t execute the plan I wanted to.
“If the race dynamics had been more like a World Cup I possibly would have got away with that tactic, but it is different in the Commonwealth Games and it didn’t work out for me.
“It just means I’m determined to come back for the next Games and get my gold medal.”
