Woo Hoo (Neffness IV)

Last Friday, after Jolanda Neff podiumed at the UCI Eliminator race in Cairns, I commented on Twitter about how every UCI XCO race weekend seems to be filled with a tad more Jolanda “Neffness” (a Tweet which got favorited by the current Women’s UCI XCO series leader I might add). Considering the form she is in right now, I fully expected a good showing from her in Sunday’s XCO race.

With the likes of Gunn-Rita Dahle choosing not to make the trip to Australia, I figured the race could come down to the likes of Neff, her Liv Pro XC teammate, and long time Soiled Chamois favorite, Maja Włoszczowska and experienced racers the likes Sabine Spitz and Irina Kalentieva. It turns out I was sort of right and sort of wrong…

Neff had an amazing start to the race, and along with Eva Lechner of Italy, took a commanding lead. But as the race went on, stomach issues got the best of Neff and Lechner pulled away to take an impressive and well deserved win. Włoszczowska had a bad day on the bike too and finished in a distant 14th. However, I was right in thinking that Kalentieva and Spitz would be up at the front and the duo finished 3rd and 4th behind Trek Factory Racing’s Emily Batty who, despite an early fat, had great day in the saddle and finishing 2nd, 52 seconds behind Lechner.

While Neff would eventually drop to 9th place on the day, she did managed to hold on to the 2014 UCI XCO World Cup series leaders jersey AND despite fading in the 2nd half of the race, she still managed to pull out some serious Neffness along the way, as witnessed in the video clip below (taken from Red Bull TV) as she (and Lechner, seen doing some… “Evaness” above) railed around the turns, took on the steep, rocky Jacob’s Ladder descent and even doubled up on some jumps.