"Her enthusiasm sometimes still kills her" - Alpecin-Deceuninck look to help Puck Pieterse become more efficient into cyclocross season

Puck Pieterse is one of the most exciting talents coming up in cycling but her enthusiasm may play against her at times. This is said by Alpecin-Deceuninck's manager Christoph Roodhoft in a recent interview, talking about her comeback to cyclocross this weekend.

“Puck was actually still in very good shape on the mountain bike at the end of the season. A rest period was a wise choice, she is still very young," team manager Roodhoft told Wielerflits. "She rested, but also stayed busy on her bike. It is also important not to rest for too long, because it is very difficult to resume cyclocross racing.” Pieterse started the CX season in Waterloo where she finished second to Fem van Empel, and then finally took time to rest. A month later now, she will resume racing at the Troyes World Cup.

“I don't think much will have changed compared to last year. Puck has of course gained a lot of confidence through her MTB summer (where she was the XCO World Cup winner, ed.). Fem van Empel was also active in mountain biking, but that was less successful than Puck's campaign. That will be different in the cross, the two will be close to each other again.” That was the case at the end of last season when the two became the overwhelmingly strongest figures in the women's side of the discipline, although the Jumbo-Visma rider took the lead in that regard.

“Hopefully a third one will join. Then we really get a race and they don't have to compete against each other all the time. But we will see about that. Puck is the better [technically], or if not the best, technically skilled rider. If she can temper her enthusiasm a bit, I think that could be a particularly great asset in the long term. But at the moment her enthusiasm sometimes still kills her," he tells. “Puck still has a tendency to go very fast in the beginning. Or sometimes she tries something that can't really be tried or certainly not at that moment. Anyway, she's still young and you still have that youthful enthusiasm in you. That will certainly be resolved.”