For a combined 14 seasons, Jolanda Neff and Anton Cooper have been consummate champions with Trek, representing the very best of the bike company both on and off the trail. They will be beginning new journeys in 2025, but we can’t thank them enough for everything they contributed to Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli XC.
Jolanda Neff needs no introduction. World Champion. Olympic Champion. Thirteen-time XCO World Cup winner. Four-Time European Champion. And Three-time World Cup overall champ. As Neff racked up titles, she also earned a reputation for being one of the friendliest and most recognizable riders in the sport, while also tearing up the cyclocross and road circuits from time to time. There may never be another rider quite like her.
That Olympic win in Tokyo highlighted something very important: Neff is a pure racer.
For nearly two years beforehand, she’d suffered setback after setback, starting with a brutal crash in late 2019 that left her with a broken rib, collapsed lung, and an emergency procedure to stem internal bleeding in her spleen. The recovery was long and arduous, negating an already Covid-hampered 2020. She seemed to be rounding back into peak form in 2021 when she took third in short track and fourth in XCO in Leogang, but she suffered a broken hand in a crash during her fourth lap that Sunday, just six weeks out from the Olympics.
She was not considered a favorite to even medal in Tokyo, but rain and fresh mud made the technical course her perfect playground. Neff blitzed the competition, never feeling threatened after taking an early lead to win gold by more than a minute.
“Someone said to me that whoever wins this race is going to be a worthy champion because you’re going to have to know how to ride your mountain bike — you need skills, you need everything,” Neff said after the race. “I’m just so incredibly happy to win on this track on this day.”
The very next year, she put her unrivaled technical prowess on full display once with one of the best weekends in Trek mountain biking history. In Mont-Sainte-Anne, on one of most difficult course on the World Cup circuit — one that Neff has repeatedly professed her love for — she completed a perfect weekend, first winning short track in a sprint against future teammate Gwendalyn Gibson, and then going solo to win Sunday’s XCO by nearly a minute.
Jolanda Neff showing off her cyclocross skills in Fayetteville.
“It’s incredible, it’s unreal, it’s amazing,” Neff said. “I really, really enjoyed myself and I had amazing support from the team all week. I felt just really good coming into this race. And it’s one of my favorite places ever anyway. I’m just, I’m over the moon.”
Neff is magnetic off the course as well, always making time for her scores of rabid fans at the biggest races of the year. She was also one of Trek’s biggest and best ambassadors. When the not-quite a hardtail, not-quite full suspension Supercaliber launched in 2019, she starred as Goldilocks in a now iconic ad that served as the perfect introduction to a brand new platform.
The experience helped shape who Neff was to the public as well: An absolute shredder who always knows how to find the lighter side in a demanding sport.
“That was an experience I will never forget,” Neff said. “I loved the acting part and playing Goldilocks, and it was so cool to see first hand how a movie production works. The name Goldilocks stuck with me after that and somehow people still call me that name now!”
No one makes racing more fun and exhilarating, and we know Neff is not done yet. Thank you, Jolanda, for bringing so much excitement and joy to fans everywhere, and to us.
Anton Cooper tearing up Lest Gets in the Silver Fern in 2019.
Anton Cooper was a consummate competitor and teammate throughout his time with Trek, and one of the most well-respected riders in the field. He dominated the New Zealand and Oceania Championships, winning seven titles in each. No cyclist is more associated with the iconic silver fern kit, which he wore for most of his Trek tenure as he flew around World Cup tracks.
Cooper regularly hit the hole shot at the front of a fiercely competitive men’s XC field. He came oh-so-close to that elusive World Cup win while racking up Top 10s and podiums. Some of his standout memories include taking Top 10 in his first ever elite World Cup in Nové Město, and a sprint finish in 2018 “that will forever haunt me,” when he came millimeters away from edging out Nino Schurter at the line.
In 2021, Cooper had his most consistent season yet, taking Top 10 in five of his first six World Cup starts, including a double-podium weekend in Leogang, where he took third place in XCO. The result primed him for a big Olympic Games roughly six weeks later, when took sixth in Tokyo.
Cooper’s last three seasons with TFR were marred by injuries and health setbacks, but he always gave gutsy performances, like when he took fourth place in Nové Město in 2022 coming off a broken scaphoid, helping the squad win Best Men’s Team of the weekend.
“Sharing the podium with the mechanics, soigneurs and management was a first for me and a moment I thoroughly enjoyed,” Cooper said, “and one which thankfully I had the chance to repeat again the following year in Leogang.” That weekend in 2023, he took eighth in both short track and XCO, then followed it up two months later with 10th-place finishes in both short track and XCO at World Championships.
“Although the past 2 years have been especially challenging with glandular fever in 2023, and especially Toxoplasmosis this year, the top results have been harder to come by,” Cooper said. “But nevertheless I have always had great support and backing from the team so THANK YOU all.”
RIP to mountain biking’s greatest mullet.
Cooper was the best teammate anyone could ask for, always willing to discuss strategy and take young riders under his wing. He immeasurably and indelibly helped shape the TFR XC squad forever, and we can’t thank him enough for everything he contributed.
“Some highlights for me the last 8 years have been racing around the world with my second family — the whole team, riders, staff, etc. — and sharing in some awesome moments,” Cooper said. “The bonds I’ve made will last a lifetime.”
