Behind the rainbow stripes

Evie Richards tells us how a chance meeting with ex-pro downhiller Katy Curd changed the course of her racing life

- By Laura Bailey

There's a wall of sound heading through the trees, following Evie Richards as she powers through the woods on her final lap of the XC race at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games. Very soon she will break out into the arena and claim her gold medal. On the other side of the track, Katy Curd, ex-professional World Cup downhill racer, is screaming, waving a lucky banana skin (don't ask) and urging Evie on.

It's not the lure of the Commonwealth Games on home turf that brings Katy to the race. For the last couple of years Evie and Katy have been working together. Between them they have won World Championship jerseys in three disciplines. Katy is a former 4X world champ and Evie has brought home two World Championship jerseys in cyclocross at under-23 level. And in 2021 she made British Cycling history by becoming the first British woman ever to claim the XC rainbow stripes in Val di Sole. So how did a gravity rider and an XC whippet team up?

I NEED TO BE ABLE TO DO THAT

Evie and Katy chuckle as they recount how Evie gatecrashed a coaching session to instigate their partnership. In lockdown I came to ride with a friend, Evie says. Katy was doing coaching for someone, she went off a drop and I thought I need to be able to do that' and I went up to her.

I would dread seeing the World Cup course because I was so worried there would be something, a feature in there, I would be scared of. I'm excited to get on course, but with mountain biking I think, 'Oh God, there's going to be something I can't do.

Lockdown gave her a rare opportunity to work on areas she wouldn't normally have the chance to, in a typical packed race schedule, juggling her time between cyclo-cross and XC. Katy didn't sound convinced she would hear from Evie after that initial approach, but two days later the phone rang and the training began.