While riding the new Supercal for World Cup Waterloo who have been great marketing, meeting the UCI cyclocross tire width on the cross country bike probably would have been a daunting challenge. For the Swiss Cyclocross National Champion, Neff’s Trek Boone would prove “just right” for her two days of racing on the grounds of her sponsor’s headquarters.
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Jolanda Neff’s Trek Boone proved just right in Waterloo. Elite Women, 2019 Trek CX Cup. © D. Mable / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]
With Sanne Cant (IKO – Crelan) and Mathieu van der Poel (Corendon – Circus) opting out of the 2019 U.S. World Cups, Neff brought some megawatt star power to Waterloo, and the rider some have nicknamed “Sendy-Poof” did not disappoint.
Neff sent it over the barriers in Friday’s C2 and attacked to get a winning gap, and then in the sloppy mud at World Cup Waterloo, she poof! appeared in the silver medal spot after charging all the way up from a fourth-row start.
Even covered in mud, Neff’s white Swiss Champ’s kit and baby blue Trek Factory Racing Boone burned bright on the muddy, dreary Sunday in Wisconsin. We took a closer look at Neff’s Boone—before it did its muddy thing—for our latest bike profile.
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Jolanda Neff’s 2019 World Cup Waterloo Trek Boone. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]
Jolanda Neff’s World Cup Waterloo Trek Boone
Trek Factory Racing CX is a women’s cyclocross project that capitalizes on its riders’ versatility. Neff, Evie Richards and Ellen Noble raced mountain bikes for the XC team over the summer, and with fall here, they now trade their wide knobby tires for knobby tires, maximum width 33mm.
Neff’s change of seasons with the change of seasons was particularly quick. She finished second at Mountain Bike Worlds in Mont-Sainte-Anne at the end of August, raced the last XCO World Cup in Snowshoe, took exactly one week off and then headed to Trek Headquarters for a whirlwind week in Waterloo. When not getting ready to race, the Swiss star was meeting with employees, women ambassadors and doing her thing as one of the biggest stars in cycling today.
Like the Telenet Baloise team, the Trek Factory Racing CX women race on Trek’s flagship Boone. The newest iteration of the Boone with front and rear IsoSpeed decouplers and a race-specific design was first released in 2017.
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The front IsoSpeed decoupler provides compliance in the front when the course gets bumpy. Jolanda Neff’s 2019 World Cup Waterloo Trek Boone. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]
Since that release, we have reviewed the Boone, gawked at the bright yellow Telenet Fidea Boones, profiled Katie Compton’s Nationals-winning Boone, profiled the Boones of Richards and Toon Aerts and profiled Katie Compton’s Nationals-winning Boone.
Trek builds the Boone frameset with its second-highest-level OCLV 600 carbon and adds additional compliance with front and rear IsoSpeed decouplers. The bike has a sleek race-like look and has a race-oriented maximum tire clearance of 38mm.
While we have seen some riders using bikes such as the Orbea Terra, Santa Cruz Stigmata and Cannondale SuperX to pull gravel duty during the cyclocross offseason, most Trek-sponsored athletes have opted for the Trek Checkpoint gravel bike to aid in their groady adventures.
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The Boone has a sleek, racy look, including bridgeless seat stays. Jolanda Neff’s 2019 World Cup Waterloo Trek Boone. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]
Neff’s Boone has the two tones of blue we saw on Richards’ bike last season with several Swiss crosses adorning the top tube, fork and chainstays in honor of her 2019 Swiss Cyclocross National Championship.
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Swiss crosses adorn Neff’s bike, including the fork. Jolanda Neff’s 2019 World Cup Waterloo Trek Boone. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]
Each TFR racer has their top tube personalized, and Neff’s reads “Burn Bright in the Game, Stay Fresh in the Game.”
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Each rider on the TFR team has a personalized top tube. Jolanda Neff’s 2019 World Cup Waterloo Trek Boone. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]
The Trek Factory Racing CX team is sponsored by SRAM—they were headquartered in the SRAM tent in Waterloo—and so Neff’s drivetrain featured the new 1x SRAM Red 1 eTap AXS groupset.
Although Neff is known as Sendy-Poof, her nickname could also be “Spinny-Poof” based on her riding style. Neff pedals with a high cadence in both mountain and cyclocross, so it is not too surprising she ran a 38t X-Sync chain ring—the same front gearing her fellow mountain bike-ster Richards ran at Jingle Cross last season. Her 38t ring was mounted to a a SRAM Red crankset.
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Neff ran a Red crankset with 38t X-Sync chain ring as part of her 1x Red 1 eTap AXS gruppo. Jolanda Neff’s 2019 World Cup Waterloo Trek Boone. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]
In the rear, she ran a SRAM Red eTap AXS rear derailleur and 10-33t Force cassette.
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Neff ran the new SRAM Red eTap AXS rear derailleur with her 1x setup. Jolanda Neff’s 2019 World Cup Waterloo Trek Boone. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]
The 12-speed Force cassettes reportedly have better mud clearance that their Red XG-1290 counterparts, so the black Force cassettes in place of the silver Red options have been a common sight among SRAM riders.
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A Force cassette has been a popular choice among riders using the new Red eTap AXS groupset. Jolanda Neff’s 2019 World Cup Waterloo Trek Boone. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]
SRAM Red eTap AXS shift-brake levers controlled Neff’s rear derailleur and Red eTap AXS flat mount hydraulic disc calipers.
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Neff controlled her shifting and braking with SRAM Red eTap shift-brake levers. Jolanda Neff’s 2019 World Cup Waterloo Trek Boone. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]
Trek’s house brand Bontrager helped equip much of the rest of Neff’s bike.
When I photographed Neff’s bike on Saturday afternoon, she had intermediate treads mounted to Bontrager Paradigm CX RSL alloy tubulars. The wheels are the same relatively light, relatively affordable tubulars we rode when reviewing the Trek Boone. Trek engineers designed the wheels as an alloy alternative to the company’s cyclocross carbon tubulars to save money after Trek signed on as a sponsor of then Telenet Fidea team.
The team has a mix of the alloy Paradigm CX wheels and carbon Aeolus XXX tubulars in its lineup, and Neff’s use of the alloy wheels may have been because that is what the Grifo treads were mounted to at the time.
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The Paradigm CX alloy tubulars are a relatively affordable option Neff chose for her races. Jolanda Neff’s 2019 World Cup Waterloo Trek Boone. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]
The TFR CX team is sponsored by Challenge and riders run the company’s Team Edition tubulars. When I looked at Neff’s bike following her Saturday pre-ride, she had Grifo intermediate treads mounted, but on race day, she was on Limus mud tires. She ran her World Cup Waterloo Limuses at 15 psi front and 16 psi rear.
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The Trek Factory Racing team is sponsored by Challenge and thus runs Team Edition tubulars. Jolanda Neff’s 2019 World Cup Waterloo Trek Boone. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]
Neff’s cockpit included a 40cm Bontrager IsoCore Pro VR-SF carbon handlebar and Pro Blendr alloy stem. Despite the Blendr stem’s mount compatibility, Neff went with the tried-and-true Garmin stem mount to hold her computer during her Saturday ride.
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Neff ran an alloy Bontrager Pro Blendr stem but opted for the traditional Garmin stem mount for her computer. Jolanda Neff’s 2019 World Cup Waterloo Trek Boone. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]
The rear IsoSpeed decoupler requires the use of Trek’s proprietary seat mast cap, and Neff opted for an Aeolus Elite saddle with Austenite rails (the highest-end Aeolus Pro has carbon rails). Neff rounded out her contact points with matchy-matchy blue Crankbrothers Eggbeater 3 pedals.
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The Boone requires the use of a seat mast cap to work with the rear IsoSpeed. Jolanda Neff’s 2019 World Cup Waterloo Trek Boone. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine[/caption]
After Trek Factory Racing CX’s U.S. mechanic Tom Price finished cleaning the mud off Neff’s bikes, they now head into semi-storage for the time being. Neff has had a long mountain bike season and deserves a well-earned break before she returns to racing.
The Trek program said her goal is to race Cyclocross Worlds at home in Dübbendorf, and so she has plans to race more cyclocross to accumulate UCI points to better her starting spot for the February Swiss throwdown. When Neff does return to the mud and ruts, it seems likely she will be ready to burn bright in the game once again.
For a closer look at Jolanda Neff’s Trek Boone, see the photo gallery and specs below.
Photo Gallery: Jolanda Neff’s World Cup Waterloo Trek Boone
Jolanda Neff’s 2019 World Cup Waterloo Trek Boone. © Z. Schuster / Cyclocross Magazine
