When your phone starts ringing off the hook at four in the morning, it’s rarely a good thing. That’s what happened to Phil Dixon, Team Manager at Cannondale Factory Racing last Monday, just days before the Lake Placid World Cup. Those early morning (late night?) calls were from team star Jolanda Neff, kicking off a chain of events that nearly saw the 2020 Olympic champion miss her race in New York on Friday.
Neff was phoning the boss man from at home in Switzerland. Instead of getting on a flight to meet up with Dixon and the team, already in the U.S., Neff was headed back home. Problems with her visa had turned her around and prevented her from boarding her flight.
After those early Monday phone calls, Neff wouldn’t make it to the race venue in Lake Placid, N.Y. until 45 minutes before the start of her XCC World Cup race on Friday. Neff would finish that race 25th, one spot behind Canada’s Emilly Johnston. On Sunday, she’d finish 11th in the XCO World Cup.
Neff and Dixon shared this story during a longer interview, including their Canadian teammate Cole Punchard, after the live broadcast. Punchard also talks about throwing elbows with current XCC world champ, Victor Koretzky mid race and his iconic wave to home mid-race earlier this season.
While it all worked out for Neff, The Syndicate’s Steve Peat wasn’t so lucky. The retired racer, now Team Manager at Santa Cruz Syndicate, was also turned around by visa issues. That left Peaty forced to watch from home as his young star, Jackson Goldstone, battled with Loic Bruni for the World Cup overall title. Not that he just sat on the couch. Despite what must have been a painful time change, Peaty says he managed to help Goldstone and the team with lines and still give the Canuck a solid pre-run pep talk. Hard task, from the other side of an ocean.
Goldstone would make up some ground, finishing fourth and two spots ahead of Bruni. That puts him just a scant 72 points behind the Frenchman going into the final World Cup round this weekend in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Que.
Visa issues and U.S. sporting
Lake Placid was the first World Cup in the U.S.A. in 2025. There’s been a few changes since the last time the World Cup visited the U.S., to say the least. This isn’t the first time an athlete, even a prominent cyclist has had trouble getting into North America for an event. But seeing one Team Manager miss the race and one star rider nearly…
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