Flying vet Evans aiming to play a lead role in Paris as Scottish cycling star targets an upgrade on Tokyo silver

Laborious study and advanced practice with the lives of creatures great and small on the line was the route Neah Evans followed to emerge as a qualified vet. 

The unexpected diversion that propelled the Scot from birthing animals to delivering high-velocity laps of a cycling velodrome has meant a career paused rather than abandoned.

Her pet whippet, Figaro, is accident prone. 

The tools of her learned trade, she confides, occasionally get pulled out of the drawer. ‘He’s really tolerant of me when I go, “I’m going to fix you”.’

Two years ago, she was roused in the middle of the night on a trip home to the family farm in Aberdeenshire during lambing season. 

Code Red, two separate sheep in states of distress. From first to top gear in an instant, it was all hands on deck.

‘It was a pretty tricky one,’ Evans calmly reflects. ‘But it was absolutely fine, a happy story. Though I still have this massive reaction now if I get woken up by an alarm. 

You need to switch on so quickly. As soon as I wake, I’m like, “ok, what’s wrong?”’

Such circumstances, she acknowledges, are a reminder of an alternative reality, one in which the acute pressure that will accompany the pursuit of two Olympic titles in Paris pales in comparison to decisions that separate life from death. 

It also compels the two-time world champion to appreciate this parallel universe into which she stumbled a decade ago, accelerating from triallist to titan at extraordinary speed.

Some are schooled for greatness from a young age. Evans learned late, but quickly.

An athlete several rungs below her contemporary at Glasgow University, Laura Muir, it was only badgering from her father Malcolm — and the famously inclement local weather — that coaxed her onto a bike at the velodrome built in the city for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

No fireworks exploded. No breathless fanfare. ‘There wasn’t anyone there who was like: “Oh, you’ve got the makings of something brilliant.” I was just like: “let’s do the next one, that was a bit of fun”.’

Rapidly, Evans found herself intoxicated. ‘I recall this sensation from the movement around the track. I wouldn’t have actually been going that fast but, relatively speaking, it felt pretty quick.’

Based now at British Cycling’s medal factory in Manchester, blocks of time are hived off for the potent squad that should deliver success in abundance during the first full week of August. 

At other hours, the recreational rabble gets its turn, doing the same introductory accreditation sessions that unearthed her natural talent.

‘I remember when I was one of them,’ she smiles. Disregard that pipeline at your peril. ‘Even if you’ve not got the kit, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have talent and ability to go on. 

You shouldn’t just rule someone out because they haven’t gone to the local bike shop and bought all the gear before the accreditation.

‘It was just my personality type. I found something that clicked. You can progress with a little bit of race craft. It’s such a different dynamic to running. 

I was at a point where running wasn’t going well, because I was ill or injured and just in a little bit of a box. 

Student lifestyle had caught up with me. And this just seems like one of those things: right place, right time.’

Serendipity, she trusts, can strike twice more at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yveline Velodrome on the evenings of August 9 and 11. 

The champions of the madison and omnium will be crowned then, just days after her 34th birthday.

The silver medal acquired in vain pursuit of Germany at the delayed Tokyo Games three years ago is a priceless reminder of just how far she travelled since her grand gamble to trade poorly poodles for powerful pedals seven years ago.

‘I go “flip me” when I think that I’ve gotten an Olympic silver,’ she beams. ‘That’s really cool. 

And because the Olympics is such a universal sporting event, with people who aren’t into sport, if you say you’ve got an Olympic silver medal, they just look at you in a different light.

‘And it’s such a bizarre thing. Because of the way the team pursuit unfolds, it’s two teams in the final as a head-to-head, and we lost that final. 

If you’ve got a silver medal in athletics from finishing second, you’ve won that.

Whereas within the team pursuit, you’ve lost the gold. It’s still the same result. 

And yet, we came off after that feeling that we’d lost.’

Two shots beckon for redemption. Surgical precision, steady hands, calm demeanour, all valuable commodities for the vet in the saddle.