"It was the aerodynamic socks" Evie Richards reviews the season in which she broke the record of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot

Evie Richards started the XC World Cup 2025 in Brazil with two short track victories and a record for the history books. The British rider became the elite woman with the most XCC victories to date, a milestone she achieved by taking the record from Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. But that happened in April, and many things occurred before her season closure in October. Richards herself has explained it with an unusual frankness.

Evie Richards: two victories, a historic record, and a lesson in maturity

In a video recently published by her team, Trek Factory Racing, Evie Richards reviews a season in which she experienced everything, from a dazzling and unexpected success to having to learn again to give up certain things to move forward.

The Trek rider landed in 2025 after a chaotic few months, with a preparation that she herself admits was far from ideal. She still remembers the moment she found out she had to travel immediately: “Do I have to fly to Brazil today?”, she recounts with laughter.

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Even so, Richards handled the situation with a polished strategy and contained ambition. She learned from her race the previous year on the same circuit: “This year I'm going to stay in the slipstream and then I'll attack on the climb,” she explained before executing exactly that plan. The result was undeniable: two victories and a feeling of total control. She even joked after crossing the finish line: “These were the aerodynamic socks,” she said with irony after crossing the finish line.

Beyond the triumph, the British rider emphasized what it means to win without being at her peak. “I wasn't exactly where I want to be... I wouldn't say I'm at my peak,” she admitted. For her, the pre-race tension is an inseparable part of short track: “I'm super nervous before the race,” she confessed about a format that, paradoxically, she loves.

The extreme conditions also marked the weekend. Richards did not hide the harshness of the heat: “I started with ice in my sock, in my sports bra, everywhere.” Despite that, she completed both races without issues.

A season marked by illness and a necessary mental shift

From Brazil, the season was not a smooth path. Richards confessed that she became obsessed with winning in Nove Mesto and fell into dynamics that did her no good: “I followed all the old patterns: pushing too hard, obsessing, cutting everything out.” The consequence came quickly: she suffered from illnesses and still continued to compete. “I was sick in Nove Mesto and competed, and then sick in Leogang and competed,” she acknowledges.

This repetition of mistakes led her to a sharp conclusion. So much so that she promises to write it down by hand in her notebook: “If you're sick, you stop. I'm going to write it on the first page of my notebook.”

In Val di Sole, she made a difficult but necessary decision: to give up defending the leader's jersey if it put her health at risk. She expressed it with total clarity: “I don't care about this leader's jersey right now. I'm not going to kill myself... if I don't recover now, I'm not going to finish the season.”

This process led her to value the results from a different angle. After signing a top-10 even with the aftereffects of illness, she celebrated it as a personal victory: “That's what I came to achieve. Goal set. Closed chapter. Done.”

An intelligent season closure and a global title

The season was not over, but everything pointed to the fact that Richards had learned in time. In Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, she had to control the final race without compromising the overall title. And she did not fail. “I couldn't risk losing the overall trying to win,” she explained with total naturalness after securing it.

At the end of the year, Richards looks back with a mix of gratitude and realism. She knows that cycling is far from a predictable sport: “Something always happens... an injury, an illness, a family problem,” she reflects.

But she also recognizes everything she has built despite, or thanks to, those difficulties: “When I look back at what I've achieved, I've accomplished quite a lot,” she states.

After the record, the victories, and the lessons learned, Richards seems to have closed the season with the serenity of someone who has found a new balance in her career.