Evie's Profile

A double world champion at under-23 level, silver medallist at the Commonwealth Games and equally at home in mountain biking or cyclo-cross, Richards’ impressive progress saw her selected for her first Olympic Games in 2020.

A former field hockey player, Richards concentrated on cycling from the age of 16 and quickly proved equally adept at both disciplines, enjoying a break-out year in 2015 when she won silver at the UCI Junior Mountain Bike World Championships in Andorra, placing second to Italy’s Martina Berta.

Richards’ development continued in 2016 when she was crowned world champion, at under-23 level, after winning the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Belgium, despite being one of the youngest competitors, at only 18 years old. The Worcestershire-based rider broke away on the first lap before crossing the finishing line 35 seconds ahead of the Czech silver medalist Nikola Noskova, a feat all the more impressive as it was Richards’ first cyclo-cross race outside the UK.

That calendar year also saw Richards become a double British national champion at under-23 level - in both mountain bike and cyclo-cross - a feat she repeated in 2017. Indeed, with the women’s under-23 a new age group of racing introduced in cyclo-cross in 2016, Richards won the first three titles in that event, from 2016-18.

Success followed throughout 2017. Having started the year by collecting a bronze medal in the UCI Under-23 Cyclo-cross World Championships in Bieles, Luxembourg, Richards won her first elite category cyclo-cross World Cup race in Namur, Belgium, where she beat fellow British rider Nikki Brammeier Harris.

By 2018, Richards was beginning to make an impact at elite level, with one of the highlights of the year coming in the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, where she won silver in the mountain bike cross-country event, behind England team-mate Annie Last. There were also significant victories in the UCI Under-23 World Championships in Valkenburg, Netherlands, where, for the second time she was crowned world champion in cyclo-cross.

In her last year as an under-23 rider, 2019, Richards won the UCI Under-23 Mountain Bike Cross-country World Cup event in Snowshoe, West Virginia, USA, adding three second-placed finishes in that series.

Richards opened 2020, and the permanent step-up to elite level racing, with third place at the Cyprus Sunshine Epic mountain bike event and victory at the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.

In February, she also placed sixth at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championship, before finishing a creditable 13th in the cross-country race at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Leogang, Austria in October. The delayed Olympic year of 2021 opened in impressive fashion for Richards with a seventh-placed finish at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Ostende, Belgium.

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