Team GB cyclist Neah Evans narrowly avoided a huge collision after falling off her bike during the women’s omnium scratch race at the Olympics. The 34-year-old was nearly hit at full speed by another cyclist on the last lap after losing her balance and tumbling down the banked final turn.
Evans was battling for position as the racers whizzed around the velodrome but found herself going for a gap that was not really there. She ended up clipping the wheels of another rider, which sent her flying off her bike and forced the cyclist behind her to take evasive action.
The Brit ended up flat on her back and took a few moments to compose herself before gingerly climbing back to her feet. She eventually got back on her bike to cross the finish line in last place when the race had long since finished.
Chris Boardman, who won gold for Team GB in the individual pursuit in 1992, said on the BBC: “It was just the overlapping wheel. Neah Evans just tried to go for a gap that simply wasn’t there. Perhaps a little bit of frustration. She pushed into a gap and just had a bit of an overwheel.”
The frightening incident came two days after Evans helped Team GB to clinch silver in the women’s madison alongside team-mate Elinor Barker. She did well to even make it to the Olympics, having recently struggled with a bacterial infection which left her unable to climb stairs.
Reflecting on how the infection threatened to derail her Olympic hopes, Evans told the Team GB website: “The past 18 months have been really bad for me, if I am honest. There have been several times when I have sat there and thought I am not going to make it.
“The bacterial infection, it totally floored me. My plan went out of the window and I just tried to get over that and see what I could do. Honestly, at that point if you said I would go to an Olympics and win a silver medal, I would have said no chance.
“There were times when I was walking up the stairs, and halfway up I thought: ‘I can’t get up there’. As an athlete, you downplay these things but this was almost quite scary.
“With injuries, you can’t rush them but you can get around it, whereas with this I just had to recover. I am delighted to come away with silver and we had a really great battle.”
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