Looking only at two years of Trek CX Cup results, Swiss rider Yolanda Neff doesn't appear to have changed much.

The multi-time mountain bike world champion has signed with Trek for the 2019 season with Trek Factory Racing for cross-country and cyclo-cross and Trek Segafredo for road, and she will compete in 2019 at the Waterloo, Wis. He won his first race in his first appearance at the sponsor's signature cross event, and returned on Friday to win the 2021 Category 2 race.

In the meantime, however, she has not competed in cyclocross at all and has not ridden a 'cross bike.

The ups and downs of her mountain biking career led to Neff not riding a bike at all for several months as she recovered from a serious injury, but she returned to the top with a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics.

"I hadn't ridden a cross bike for two years. Today is my first day back since racing two years ago. 'So I got this bike this morning and went out for my first race. Yeah, it was good!"

In 2019, just two months after winning at Waterloo, Neff suffered a ruptured spleen, broken ribs, and collapsed lung on a mountain bike training ride.

She returned midway through 2020 and won the Swiss national title in cross-country to earn a spot on the Olympic team, so she continued to focus on that discipline even when the Olympics were postponed to 2021 due to a coronavirus outbreak. Then this past summer, he broke his hand, putting his Olympic dream in jeopardy, but he unexpectedly won the gold medal.

Much like her performance in the cross-country in Tokyo, Neff led the race after only two laps and went on to win the UCI C2 race solo on Friday.

"It was fun. It was a really good time today." Clausel won by 21 seconds, ahead of Helene Clausel (AS Bike Cross Team), Katerina Nash (Clif Pro Team), and Caroline Mani (Pactimo fierce team).

After a long absence of cross results, Neff started Friday from the back of the pack. Even the announcers seemed unconvinced that the past winner of the Trek CX Cup would be the last one called to the starting grid. But Neff had no problem with 40 riders in front of him, and he pulled away from his rivals one by one in the early laps to take the runaway win.

The only barrier for Neff seemed to be the weather, which was humid and the sun was shining like a summer's day as it dried out most of the course from the heavy rain that fell on Thursday.

"It was incredibly hot. I couldn't drink and I wasn't used to the heat, so I was really suffering. I was thinking about drink bottles the whole time."

Next up is the opening round of the 16-race World Cup season in Waterloo, where two years ago Neff finished second in the same race. She is happy to be back.

"I have to start from the back of the grid again on Sunday. On Sunday we have Lucinda Brand, the world champion, and Marianne Vos. Marianne Vos is also there," Neff said with a wry smile.

In addition to world champion Brand and seven-time world champion Vos, there is also US champion Clara Honsinger, US Junior World Championship bronze medalist Maddie Munroe, British champion Harriet Harden, Irish champion Maria Larkin, and Denise Bessema, winner of the 2021 Superprestige Middelkerke.

"We knew we always had a better chance on Friday, so we knew we had to make the most of today. Sunday will be a different story."