Cycling: Overall World Cup winner Jolanda Neff decided spontaneously: The start from Switzerland travels to Cyprus to defend his title at the Afxentia stage race from last year. Junior World Champion Simon Andreassen also intends to contest the Cyprus Sunshine Cup. Meanwhile, another single trail has been added to the Afxentia.
She started a phenomenal season in Cyprus in 2014. Jolanda Neff won the four-day Afxentia and six weeks later in Pietermaritzburg she took her World Cup win in the elite category. At the end of the season there were two more victories and winning the overall ranking - as the youngest athlete in the history of mountain biking.
Originally, Jolanda Neff hadn't even planned Cyprus this year. It was actually too early in the year for the rider from the Stöckli Pro Team, especially since the 2015 World Cup doesn't start until May.
“My form has developed faster than planned. That's why I got excited and turned my plans upside down.", explains Jolanda Neff with a grin.
Of course, it's also the fond memories and her perfect start in 2014 that prompted the 22-year-old triple U23 World Champion to enter the Afxentia stage race, which begins on February 26th with a time trial in Lefkara.
On the day Neff got in touch, Cyprus Sunshine Cup organizer Mike Hadjioannou also received a request from Simon Andreassen (Specialized). He is the reigning junior world champion in cross-country and cyclo-cross. The young man from Denmark would put on his world champion jersey for the first time in a race in Cyprus.
Even if Marianne Vos had to give up her plans to race in Cyprus because of an injury, the entry list is full of world champions and Olympic champions. Road and cross world champion Pauline Ferrand Prevot (RaboLiv), Olympic champions Julie Bresset (BH Sr Suntour-KMC) and Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesjaa (Multivan-Merida) plus marathon world champion Annika Langvad create an extremely high-class women's field.