“Oof, what a stressful morning.” That was how Jolanda Neff summed up the start of her Thursday, after the former Olympic mountain bike champion woke up to discover that her Cannondale race bike had been stolen by thieves from her house in Switzerland overnight.
But fortunately for the four-time European XC champion, the special edition bike – described by Neff as the only one of its kind in Switzerland – was soon recovered, after being found this morning by a young neighbour, who spotted it dumped in a bush close to the 32-year-old’s home.
Neff first reported the bike, a Cannondale Scalpel cross-country mountain bike with a Lefty fork and unique colour scheme, stolen to police on Thursday morning, before launching an appeal for help on social media.
“My bike got stolen last night. Please help to find it!” the Cannondale Factory Racing star, who won gold in the cross-country mountain bike race at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, posted on Instagram.
“It’s a special edition Cannondale Scalpel with the yellow-orange Lefty fork, not available for sale and the only bike like this in all of Switzerland. Please report any information to the Swiss police!”
That appeal, rather miraculously, paid off almost immediately, as just a few hours later Neff revealed that her bike was back in her possession – thanks to local schoolchild Nina, who was shown the rider’s Instagram post by her father before leaving the house this morning.
Nina then discovered the bike peaking out from a bush on her way to school, before running back home to alert her dad and their extremely grateful Olympic gold-winning neighbour.
“I need another coffee, because my bike just came back,” a relieved Neff said in a video posted this afternoon.
“The neighbour’s daughter came running to my house and she said she’d found the bike on her way to school ins a bush! And we ran down the street with her dad and my bike was just lying there, in the bush.
“Thank you Nina, and thanks to her dad Dominik – he showed her my Instagram post five minutes before she left for school, and she came back home running saying that she thinks she found the bike. Which is insane. I’m so glad my bike is back.”
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Reflecting on the possible reasons behind the thieves’ decision to dump the bike, Neff continued: “I think probably they just got scared or realised it was not the best idea to steal my bike. I really don’t know.
“But I’m just so glad my bike is back, it’s my race bike – so thank you Nina and thank you everyone who helped to spread the word. My bike is back!”
Now reunited with her high-end, one-of-a-kind machine, Neff said she plans to race it at the upcoming round of the UCI mountain bike World Cup in Nové Město, Czechia.
While she may be one of the few to achieve such a positive, and immediate, outcome, Neff is far from the first professional cyclist to be targeted by thieves.
At the Tour de France last year, TotalEnergies were hit in an overnight raid that saw 11 team bikes and tools stolen, including the main bike of stage nine winner Anthony Turgis, while a month previously Lifeplus Wahoo were rocked by the theft of all 14 bikes from a mechanic’s van at the Tour of Britain in Wrexham.
In March 2024, a group of thieves attempted to steal Bahrain-Victorious’ Merida bikes the night before Milan-Sanremo, only to be thwarted by the team’s bus driver and 2021 Paris-Roubaix winner Sonny Colbrelli.
And at this year’s Paris-Roubaix, Elke Bleyaert, the wife of Lidl-Trek pro Jasper Stuyven revealed that bikes, bags, and a laptop belonging to her and her friends were stolen from her car as she watched the women’s race, a situation compounded by an apathetic police response which left her “disappointed in this world”.
2 thoughts on ““What a stressful morning”: Olympic champion’s race bike stolen… and found in bush by local schoolchild hours later”
Well she’s lucky it wasn’t
Well she’s lucky it wasn’t over here, because she’d never have seen it again.
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And presumably felt on top of the world about it?