Evelyn Stevens

By David Anthony

Quite a few NYers had excellent performances at Green Mountain: Brian Gabele of South Africa won the 3 Overall and Matt Cutler had a breakout ride too, winning the Cat 3 road race. Rodger Aspholm enters the 40+ and...wins! Other excellent NY rides in the 40+: David Taylor takes 2nd with Mark Alden and Rob Lattanzi rounding out the top 10.

But the biggest story of Green Mountain was Evelyn Stevens, who dominated every race she was in. Though she has won races before, she is so new to the sport and so unassuming that it was easy to sleep on her. In fact, in the space of just over month, she has gone from a beginning Cat 4 to a Cat 2 – she just put in her upgrade for Catskills.

Here is a summary of her racing this long weekend:

In the TT she put 27 seconds on 2nd place.

In the circuit she soloed of the front of the race for about an hour or 2/3rd of the race, was caught and still managed 2nd in the sprint.

In the road race, showing shades of Alex Gulla – she attacked on the Queen of the Mountain hill, and then rode so hard she singlehandedly caught and passed the Pro 1/2 women’s field, which started 5 minutes ahead of her. Also, like Gulla, she rides an older heavier bike which made it more fun to watch when she pulled alongside the pros with their team carbon fiber rigs kitted with SRMs. She was leading the P/2/3 field until four or five of them bridged back up and passed her with a few k's to go on the finishing climb. In the end she won her race by five minutes.

On the last crit stage she just sat at the front of the pack virtually the whole way and whittled the pack down to 4 women who were able to hang on, placing third. She set such a brutal pace only eight women finished the race without getting pulled. We coaxed a few words out of the shy Stevens:


NYVC: Did you excel at endurance sports in college?

ES: I played tennis in college. After I graduated and moved to the city I worked so much I need to get outside, so I ran a lot. But not really competitively. I ran a few races though, a half marathon.

NYVC: What kind of time did you get?

ES: about an hour and forty five minutes. 7.5 minute pace is what I would run.

NYVC: So, how did you start riding?

ES: I started riding in California – my sister's fiancée is a racer – when I visited her when I was still in college I would ride with her then. Over Thanksgiving last year I rode a bike with clipless pedals for the first time and even tried to do a cyclocross race. I started riding in New York last March and did the Women’s clinic; Etsu Taniguchi of Avenue A encouraged me a lot and helped me get started. This month I really started training in a more focused way for Green Mountain.

NYVC: Though you had success in the handful of races you previously did, were you surprised with your result in your first stage race?

ES: Yes very, I though my climbing was coming along alight but it really went better than I could have imagined.

NYVC: Would you quit your job and go pro, if given the chance.

ES: (laughs) I’d love to get the chance to ride at the highest level in the sport, but I have a lot of learning and improving to do before then.