"Chase your dreams. Chase them until you're out of breath. Then keep riding."
The quote on Jolanda Neff’s Twitter bio says a lot. And while the Swiss athlete is chasing her dreams, more often than not the rest of the peloton is chasing her.
That is certainly the case in mountain bike cross-country Olympic (XCO) – Neff was crowned UCI World Champion in the discipline in 2017 and has won the overall UCI World Cup three times – but she has also enjoyed success on the road, not least with overall victory in the 2016 Tour de Pologne, and in cyclo-cross.
Ah yes. Cyclo-cross. The 26-year-old Swiss athlete competes in cyclo-cross primarily to prepare the mountain bike season but has also left her rivals in the discipline chasing on more than one occasion this season. She started 2019 off with a bang by winning the GP Sven Nys in Belgium, beating the reigning UCI World Champion Sanne Cant and plenty of other high-profile names in the process. Two weeks later, she added the Swiss national cyclo-cross title to her national titles for XCO and road.
But the biggest challenge is yet to come…
On February 2nd, the mountain bike specialist will line up in Bogense, Denmark, for the 2019 UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships. After three participations at the UCI Road World Championships (Florence 2013, Richmond 2015 and Innsbruck 2018) and nine in the UCI Mountain Bike Worlds (every year since 2010), Neff will be experiencing the thrills of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships for the first time.
“It makes it more exciting for me because it’s a first,” says Neff. “It’s nice to win the Swiss title but what makes it exciting and interesting is to see where you are at compared to the world’s best. That’s what I want to see.”
Despite certain similarities between mountain bike and cyclo-cross, Neff admits: “I had to learn that it’s a whole other discipline. It’s in the dirt so there are similarities to mountain bike. But it’s 40 minutes, and the intensity is not comparable, the efforts you do are very different from mountain bike.
“I like the action in cyclo-cross. From the first moment, every second counts, every metre counts, every single move counts. There is a lot of action in mountain bike too, but you have 90 minutes and longer climbs, of sometimes 3-5 minutes, where you can really make a difference. In cyclo-cross, the maximum is like 200m straight and then there is the next corner. So you need to attack every single moment. If someone passes you once, then it is very hard to come back past them. Of course, there are tactics, but you just need to be full on from the moment the gun goes off until the finish line. It has been very exciting for me to improve in this aspect.”
Despite her enthusiasm, Neff admits that she finds it hard to cope with extreme cold: “When it’s below zero or around freezing point and raining or snowing, that’s what is hard for me and I can get to the point where I’m like `Why am I doing this? I could be in the sunshine now riding in short sleeves´.”
The day she captured her Swiss title was one of those days: 2 degrees and relentless rain: “We rode 50 metres and there was a corner with a big puddle that you couldn’t go around so you were just soaked, your feet were soaked. For the last two laps I was just like an ice cube. That was a cold one!”
However warmer climes were waiting: immediately after clinching her Swiss title, Neff travelled to Mallorca to train with her road team Trek Segafredo. In cyclo-cross she rides for Trek Factory Racing CX. “It’s an amazing opportunity to be able to be part of the road team and the cyclo-cross team. In Mallorca I’ve been doing the same training as the rest of the Women’s Team. They have a really well-structured programme and I enjoy training with the other girls so much.”
This coming weekend, Neff will compete in the final round of the 2018-2019 Telenet UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup in Hoogerheide, the Netherlands. It is on this same course that she crashed last year, sustaining an injury that prevented her from starting the 2018 UCI World Championships in Valkenburg, the Netherlands.
“I’m very excited to go back to Hoogerheide. I know I can do well on that course. I hope I can get some more points and hopefully that will move me up a little bit in the start position for Bogense.”
Objectives for the Worlds in Bogense?
“From what I’ve heard, the course is pretty flat and not very technical. I prefer technical tracks with mud and corners and obstacles, but nevertheless I have had a really good time training with the girls on the road in Mallorca.
“I’m learning something in every race and it’s so exciting to come to the next one and implement it and move forward and learn and get better and immediately notice the improvements. I’m sure I can improve but it’s hard to predict where that will position me compared to the other girls who have been racing cyclo-cross since September and are peaking now,” says Neff, who only began her season in December.
“I just want to ride as fast as I can and of course the start phase is crucial. I want to have a really good race and reach the finish line in one piece and we will see what happens.”
And whatever happens, Neff is adamant: “I would still describe myself as a mountain biker and I will always be a mountain biker. It’s really my number one, it’s what is dear to me.”
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