In 2012, Neah Evans was a 22-year-old student who had travelled from north-east Scotland’s Aberdeenshire to Glasgow in order to become a veterinary surgeon. But in October of that year, the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome opened, a couple of years ahead of the Commonwealth Games of Glasgow 2014. And it changed her life. "If this velodrome didn’t exist, I wouldn’t be a cyclist," she says as she gets ready to defend, on home soil, the rainbow jersey she claimed last season in the points race, a year after she won an Olympic silver medal in the team pursuit.
Hailing from the other side of the world, Australia's Leigh Hoffman celebrated his 22nd birthday last year, in June, and went on to take his first rainbow jersey in the team sprint.
The two of them are now getting ready to meet in Glasgow, in early August, where they'll defend their stripes in the groundbreaking UCI Cycling World Championships.
What does 2023 represent for you?
Neah Evans (NE): A week after the previous UCI Worlds, I was already looking at the calendar and planning what I was gonna do, how I was gonna improve. To be a UCI World Champion is hugely special. To then have the opportunity to defend the title at home is pretty unique. I’m very very excited but it also adds some pressure because you really want everything to fall into place for these Championships and it’s gonna be hard.
Leigh Hoffman (LH): It’s a massive jump for me. My first ever UCI World Championships was my first win. It’s crazy and hopefully we can keep getting wins and wins and wins and be riding the UCI World Championships for at least four to five years, similar to what the Dutch have done. We want more of that, we train on our performances and hopefully we can go beyond that.
With the Australian team, you dethroned the Dutch sprinters at the 2022 UCI Worlds. How special is this rivalry?
LH: It’s definitely fun. I think this is rare in cycling so for us to have a rivalry going with the Dutch, it makes racing interesting. In Cairo, they won but we were not there, in Jakarta we won but they had a flat tyre so we’ll never know what would have happened. It’s definitely some healthy competition for us boys. It’s not easy because they’ve got the world record so on paper they technically are quicker, they’re breathing down your neck. But ideally, we want to take that record from them as soon as we can.
How do you feel with the rainbow jersey?
NE: I was quite late coming into the sport, I hadn’t done a sport where you have a champion that gets to wear a jersey for a year, and I love that about cycling. I think other sports should have that. I’ve been fortunate to be National and European Champion. You get special kits but the rainbow is just something different. I’ve had a couple of races where I got to wear the stripes. You go and get changed and you just come out with a smile because you’ve got your stripes. Sometimes people talk about the extra pressure and, well, there is, but I’m a UCI World Champion for a reason and if I couldn’t handle the pressure, I would never be a UCI World Champion. And I think there’s a lot of very good cyclists that never get to be UCI World Champions so it’s nice to be able to race as a World Champion, I’m enjoying it very much and I hope I get to do it again in the future.
LH: It’s amazing. It’s so surreal putting that on, for racing and training sessions. The amount of pride and honour I get from it… It’s the pinnacle of our sport so putting that on is just surreal. I wouldn't say it has changed me, not really. I’m still the same person underneath those rainbow bands. I’d still train the same, if I was or wasn’t a UCI World Champion, that’s a mindset that I have.
How well do you know Glasgow and the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome?
NE: I went to university at Glasgow so I spent five years enjoying the social scene there. My knowledge of the night life is very good, my knowledge of cycling not so much because it wasn’t part of my life at the time. Aberdeenshire is kind of the North-East forgotten corner of Scotland. I love it, it’s dead quiet, the roads are empty, I can go ride for five hours and see half a dozen cars and stop at half a dozen traffic lights if I’m unlucky. Scotland isn’t a huge country so I can easily get to Glasgow. And I love the velodrome. It’s quite a challenging track to ride, with steep bankings. That makes it quite unique. For bunch races, I think it makes it really exciting and I really enjoy that. And if it hadn’t been built, I think I would have kept studying as a vet and I would have been on a very different life trajectory. So it’s pretty special now to ride UCI World Championships on the track where you learned to ride.
LH: My first (Tissot) UCI Track Nations Cup in 2022 was in Scotland and we won that as well with Tom Cornish and Matthew Richardson. That was the first time the Dutch had lost for quite a while so that was the turning point of our career and we came up and up basically. It’s a weird track, it’s got very long straights, but for the team sprint we did find it was actually pretty good. So we’re definitely excited to race there and it’s definitely good having the confidence. We’ve raced here before, we know how the track feels. And Chris Hoy is amazing. I'd love to meet him.
Overall, these UCI Worlds are unique as it is the first time so many events and disciplines are put together at the same time, in the same area...
LH: It’s definitely a big thing for us at AusCycling, being one with para, BMX, road and all the disciplines, we’re one team. So it’s very exciting for us the first time having one big competition coming together and competing. It’s gonna be amazing. I think the team vibes are gonna be through the roof so I’m definitely very excited for it.
NE: You’re gonna get so many people who are gonna watch disciplines they otherwise wouldn’t. As riders also, we'll meet with other people we don’t normally see at events. I’ve never seen indoor cycling and some other disciplines, and then you see a clip online and it’s pretty special. It’s a great opportunity for people who like cycling, or even who don’t like cycling but enjoy sports, to see so many disciplines. There’s gotta be something that resonates with anyone. And it’s such a good opportunity for Scotland to showcase the different venues, so hopefully there will be a great legacy.