Sunday, April 27, 2025

Evan Oliphant – a Bit of Everything

-

HomeInterviewsEvan Oliphant - a Bit of Everything

Ever-versatile Endura man, Evan Oliphant crammed just about every discipline into last weekend – criterium, Premier one day and a British grass track title.

We had a word…

Criterium at Dumfries on Friday, Evan?

“It was my first crit of 2010 and I felt good – I did a lot of attacking and countering in the last five laps and gave Wilko (Ian Wilkinson) his lead out.

“Wilko won it from Dean Downing and Ed Clancy – I hoped to make the podium but I’d done a lot of work in those last laps and had to settle for fourth.”

Evan Oliphant
Endura warm up before a crit.

And a Premier on Sunday at Dumfries?

“Yeah, over 102 miles, rolling, like Doon Hame, but I was never in the inside ring.

“Callum Wilkinson and me got in a break of 12 or 13 but Julian Winn [Endura DS] told us not to work because Dean Downing and Graham Briggs were there and he thought we could get one of our sprinters across.

“In the event, we didn’t and got a lot of stick from the others in the break for not contributing.

“Callum was dropped and I punctured but got neutral service and managed to get back.

“I ended up having to cover everything myself and when Deano went no one would chase.

“In the end I was sixth.”

Evan Oliphant
Evan Oliphant spent some time racing for DFL in Belgium.

Then on “the gress” Monday?

“On the Richmond track, it’s round the cricket pitch, banked and very fast, they roll it before the event and you could just about get away with a disc.

“It’s not like a Scottish highland games track where the cows were grazing there the day before!

“I rode 81” and had to go early because my legs were still heavy from the Premier – I was half a lap up at the end!

“Richard Lambert went first and I got up to him – he ended up third with Adam Duggleby second.

“That’s my first British grass track title since my Velo Ecosse days – my third 8 K and I have two 800 metres, too.”

What’s the kit for the grass?

“48 x 16 with ‘cross tyres on a normal track bike; the track would have been good for carbon wheels – after all, the ‘cross guys ride them.”

Will you be riding any of the Scottish games?

“Maybe a couple, if there’s nothing else on – Blackford was on Saturday; my brother, Lewis won all four events.”

How do you motivate yourself to ride grass after a Premier?

“I like the grass, it’s how I started and there was more of a crowd there on Monday than any event I’ve raced in the UK, this year – seven to eight thousand, they reckon.”

When’s the next continental adventure?

“Not for a bit – this weekend we have the Ryedale, then the Scottish champs, the Beaumont and after that the British champs – and of course, there’s the Tour Series crits.”

Evan Oliphant
The Commonwealth Games have been Evan’s target all season.

June seems to be ‘crits are us.’

“They’re not a priority for me – if it’s a hard circuit then that suits me, something with a drag, like Dumfries.

“If you’re fast on the road then you should be fast in a crit – and I’m going the best I ever have.”

We’ve not seen much of Jack Bauer and Alex Blain recently.

“Jack had food poisoning and was in bed for six days – Alex had the same but maybe not quite as bad.”

When do you start your Commonwealth Games build up?

“June is very busy, so I’ll have a rest at the end of the month then ride a little track in July but it’ll be August and September before I get fully into track work.”

The Tour of Ireland has gone, does that have much of an impact?

“I didn’t know – there’s a couple of other races we can ride, so no, I don’t think it will compromise our build up.”

Are you looking forward to the Edinburgh nocturne?

“That was my last race for Plowman Craven in 2009 – I signed for Endura that night.

“And Millar won’t be there – he’ll be at the Tour!”

Evan Oliphant
The Endura train in full effect at the Exeter edition of the Tour Series.

Valverde’s ban?

“It’s the right thing.”

If you had your career over – what would you change?

“I wish I’d done more road, and sooner – I rode the grass and time trials until I was 21 and it takes you a couple of years just to learn how to train for, and ride, the road.

“I was in my last year as an U23 before I gained national selection – I should have ridden for GB a couple of years earlier. My career might have taken a different path if had the right selections, earlier.”

With thanks to Evan for his team and hoping that busy June works out well for him.

Images courtesy of Evan, Endura Racing, Neil Batt (Fisher Outdoor Leisure)

Ed Hood
Ed Hood
Ed was involved in cycling for over 50 years. In that time he was a successful time triallist, a team manager and a sponsor of several teams and clubs. He was also a respected and successful coach and during the winter months often worked in the cabins at the Six Days for some of the world's top riders. Ed was a highly respected journalist, his tales of chasing the Giro, Tour, Vuelta, Classics and World Championships - and his much-loved winter Six Days - are legendary, never the same twice, they gave our site an edge other cycling media could never duplicate or challenge. Sadly Ed passed away in January 2025, two years after suffering a devastating stroke.

Related Articles

Josh Quigley – “The Greatest Distance Cycled in One Week – Unpaced”

Scotland’s Josh Quigley rode an average of 311 miles every day for a week to establish a new Guinness world record for the Seven Day Cycling Distance Record.

Ronan McLaughlin – Team Ireland’s Third Man at the Worlds

As the Worlds memories begin to fade and thoughts turn to the late season classics in northern Italy and France, VeloVeritas takes a last look back at the Cauberg. But this time through the eyes of a man who rode that beast of a hill all 11 times on Sunday, Ireland’s Ronan McLaughlin.

Dan Bigham – World Hour Record Breaker!

When we conducted this interview Dan Bigham had just broken the World Hour Record setting a stunning new worlds best of 55.548 on the Grenchen boards in Switzerland – but since then Italian giant, ‘Pippo’ Ganna has rendered Dan to ‘ex-world Hour record holder’ with his 56.792 kilometres. We caught up with Dan a week or two after the hype had subsided.

Jayden Copp – Aussie Winner of the Sint Katelijine Waver Kermis 2014

If you’re not on one of the National Federation programmes there’s only one way to catch the eye and sign that coveted first pro contract. That is, either as an individual or with your team you head for Belgium, France or Italy and fight for results. It’s the time honoured way, good enough for Tom Simpson, Robert Millar and David Millar. A name which caught our eye recently in the Belgian kermises was 23 year-old Aussie, Jayden Copp (Bianchi DCM Arbitrage) with two fourth places, a second then a win. Well worth a word we thought.

At Random

Scottish Cycling Super 6 Series – Event 2, Wanlockhead

"I knew you'd ask that! With my team mate Gordon Murdoch in second place in the series, there's no pressure on me, and all I would say is that it'll be hard for someone to win who's not in Pedal Power!". Those were the words of Gary Hand in the run up to this weekend's race, and with Ben Greenwood (Rapha Condor-Recycling) pulling out of the second round of the Scottish Cycling Super 6 due to injury, it looked set to follow a similar pattern to the first round; being dominated by Pedal Power.

Douglas Dewey – “Because Belgium is the Best!”

Vik's latest nod to us is regarding an Englishman, Douglas Dewey. Douglas won the British U23 time trial championships last season, but the other week he pulled off a major win in Belgium-Gent Staden, the first major amateur classic of the year.

Michael Nicolson – Back to Blighty with Starley Primal

It’s a sad day; VeloVeritas has lost our man in the Flatlands front line - Michael Nicolson. He’s back in the UK for 2014 and signed up with new team, Starley Primal – new home too for fellow Scot, Davie Lines. We thought we’d best have a word...

Giro d’Italia 2013 – Stage 11: Tarvisio – Vajont (Erto e Casso) 182km. Ramunas Navardauskas Rules

Ryder Hesjedal is one of the nicest professional athletes you’ll ever meet, polite, grounded, sincere, soft spoken and likeable. To see him languishing in the gruppetto with Cav, yesterday was really quite sad. He was strong at Liège, paving the way for the win which took Dan Martin from ‘up and coming,’ to firmly, ‘arrived!’