Another run at the Tour, MTB World Championships and debut at Ardennes - busy year ahead for Puck Pieterse

While in 2023, Puck Pieterse added only two road starts to her records (one which was impressive 5th place at Strade Bianche Donne), she already got a taste of the fully-fledged road campaign last year. Well, the latter might be still a bit of an overstatement as the Fenix-Deceuninck rider only completed 13 race days on the road, but in her every start, Pieterse left behind a lasting impression.

Her strong performances at the spring classics such as 3rd places in Drenthe and at the Trofeo Binda, 5th at Dwars Door Vlaanderen and 6th at Tour of Flanders weren't even as much of a surprise, but it was at the Tour de France Femmes where she truly shone. A stage win and consistent performances in the early mountain stages almost saw her briefly become the race's overall leader, but eventually she dropped to 11th overall. That was enough to secure a white jersey for the best young rider.

And that was not even the highlight of her season as just two weeks later, Pieterse sold her great form with world title in the Olympic mountain bike discipline (XCO), taking revenge for the Olympic Games disappointment (came fourth after untimely puncture). The plan this year is no less than to defend that jersey.

For the rest of the 2025 season, you can see below that Pieterse will ride a mostly similar programme to last year's. Her debut at the moment is scheduled for the Dwars Door Vlaanderen, but it's not written in the stone that we won't see the 22-year-old in action sooner than at the start of April.