The 25-year-old former Tour of Southland winner finished third in the men's individual pursuit on the opening day of the elite and under-19 track national championships in Invercargill on Wednesday.
Evans had not competed in any track races for about four years but had a gap in his schedule and thought it would be beneficial to spice up his training.
``Sometimes you can do a lot of training on the road and it can sort of deaden you,'' Evans said.
``So I thought I would throw a bit of something different in - do the high-intensity, high-speed stuff and it might transfer to the road.''
Evans, who switched teams from Drapac to Mobius-BridgeLane in January, competed in the Herald Sun Tour in Australia earlier this month where he finished high up in the King of the Mountains category.
His next assignment for the team is in the United States in April. But more immediately, Evans will ride in the points race today and team up with Canterbury's Josh Scott in the madison tomorrow.
Commonwealth Games-bound Jared Gray claimed the win in the men's individual pursuit. He beat Scott in the final, while Evans was too strong for Cantabrian Hugo Jones in the bronze medal race, overtaking his opponent on the final lap.
Evans rode a personal best time in qualifying but just missed out on a place in the gold medal ride.
``To do a PB after fours years of not riding track was pretty good. I felt really strong as well.
``Normally you need a huge build-up to do track. But all those long tours on the road meant there was a lot of strength in my legs compared to when I used to race. I perhaps don't have the top-end sprint speed I used to have.''
Gray was pleased with his result as well.
``I've come in here with a bit of load in the legs because my focus is the Comm Games [in April], so I wasn't on top form,'' he said.
``The track wasn't running super-fast. But I was pretty happy with my times which were pretty consistent - two solid training rides.''
With the world championships starting in the Netherlands later this month, a host of New Zealand's top track riders are unavailable for the national championships.
Waikato-Bay of Plenty's Tess Young won the elite women's 500m time trial, and Sam Dakin, of Auckland, the elite men's 1000m time trial.
Waikato-Bay of Plenty's Kiaan Watts completed an exciting first night's racing by winning the under-19 men's 10km scratch race.
Otago's Ronan Geraghty placed second in the under-19 men's 1000m time trial.
