It had been seven years since we last saw Jolanda Neff racing cyclocross in our region. The 32-year-old Swiss rider naturally built her career around mountain biking, the discipline in which she became World Champion in 2017 and won the World Cup three times. With fifth places in Namur and Diegem, she immediately showed her class again on the cyclocross bike.
"I'm enjoying it," Neff laughs after the race in Dendermonde at our microphone. "It's been too long since I've raced cyclocross in Belgium and it feels good to be back. The atmosphere is always great. And the sun is shining here now as well. That makes it immediately much more fun than in previous years. And in terms of results, things are also going really well straight away. That's a nice surprise."
Why was it so important for you to come back to cyclocross?
"The mountain bike World Cup doesn’t start again until May 2026. That means, after finishing last mountain bike season, a long seven-month winter with nothing to do. For me, cyclocross is a good challenge. It’s something different again, it gives me a lot of motivation to train. It’s competition. You always learn the most from that, much more than from training. And I also enjoy it enormously. We’ve put together a small, nice group around me."
Then one could ask: why have you been away all this time?
"The past winters, I never managed to properly organize a cyclocross campaign with my teams. Now that I’m with Cannondale, I have the option to do it again. It’s super fun to have their support."
Is the fact that last mountain bike season went less well partly behind this choice?
"Ultimately, I didn’t finish in the top 10 at the mountain bike World Championships, but I remain ambitious. I want to get back to the highest level, back to the podium. If you want to achieve that, you can either keep doing the same as in previous years, or you can go back to the success story of the past. That’s what I find again in cyclocross."
Neff at work in Belgium - photo: Fotopersburo Cor Vos
Puck Pieterse also combines the two disciplines. She too says they can strengthen each other.
"That’s true. The climbing courses like Gavere and Namur suit me best, but maybe I learn the most from the flat and fast courses. They are certainly not easy, but very intense and in many ways the perfect training. You do sprints and there are no rest moments. These two intense weeks should definitely bring me something in the summer."
Are results then just a kind of secondary goal?
"It’s mainly good that I can race a block of events. I learn to race hard, to push myself, whether I’m first or fifteenth. Of course, it’s more fun at the front. But I have a lot of problems at the start. In World Cups, I’m on the fifth row. If someone misses their start in front of you, you can end up eightieth straight away in those big start fields. But well, actually that’s not so important."
What results do you want to achieve from this winter?
"I’d like to win a cyclocross again. Actually, I don’t mind whether it’s a big or small race. That would be ‘super nice.’ If the start goes well once, I have a better chance. But I keep saying it: whether I win a race or not, this is definitely a successful and enjoyable period for me."
A cyclocross World Championship wouldn’t look out of place on your palmarès either. Will you line up for the first time since the World Championships in Bogense?
"After the cyclocross races at Baal and Gullegem, I’ll go back home for the Swiss Championship. And after that, I would indeed like to do the cyclocross World Championships again. Until then I won’t race any other cyclocross events, because I have a training camp. But hopefully it will work out."
And will you then tell all your mountain bike colleagues to come and race cyclocross? It’s sometimes strange that this doesn’t happen more often.
"It always depends on what the teams want, whether they benefit from it. Luckily, I have the freedom and support now to do it. Maybe if cyclocross becomes Olympic, that will change something. In Switzerland, there is hardly anything left. There are few cyclocross races and it’s no longer popular. If we start something internationally, that could help to get more budget for the sport and more races on the calendar."
Jolanda Neff| Race | Date |
|---|---|
 X²O Badkamers Trofee - GP Sven Nys | 1 Jan |
| Exact Cross - Mol | 2 Jan |
| Telenet Superprestige Gullegem | 3 Jan |
| Swiss National Championships CX | 11 Jan |
