Puck Pieterse heads to the Tour of Flanders ready for battle: "Everything is possible"
Cycling
Puck Pieterse enters the 2025 women’s Tour of Flanders as one of the outsiders to watch. Now more experienced than a year ago and supported by a much stronger Fenix–Deceuninck team, the 22 year old is quietly confident ahead of Sunday’s Monument.
Her 2024 season was a standout year across multiple disciplines. Pieterse claimed the world mountain bike championship in the Cross-country Olympic category, became U23 world champion in the road race, and impressed at the Tour de France Femmes by winning a stage and the young rider classification.
“I think I can be quite confident,” Pieterse told Cyclingnews on Friday. “Every race we learn more. I think it will just be a nice day in general. The weather is super good now in Belgium; it's dry, which is nice. I just have to be confident, and the last few races I was there, so I can be there again. If I make the right move in the final, everything is possible.”
Last season, Pieterse often found herself isolated at the key moments in major Classics. That’s changed for this year. On Sunday, she will have a reliable support system around her, including Christina Schweinberger, Carina Schrempf, and Julie De Wilde.
“It's nice that you have people you can count on, and sometimes you make a mistake in the race, but the team can clean it up a bit to help you with it, or you can sort something out together,” she explained. “So it's really way more like a chess game on the road than it is in cross and mountain bike. It's just overall the vibes are really good.”
With a more complete team behind her, Fenix–Deceuninck can now shape races to suit Pieterse’s strengths, and they know exactly what kind of scenario suits her best.
“A hard race,” said DS Michel Cornelisse when asked what Pieterse needs to succeed. “Otherwise, you always have Wiebes or Kopecky, but I think in a hard race, a lot is possible. But the race must be hard for Puck, and she also needs a good day. It's not that if the race is hard, Puck is there by herself, but normally she's there then.”
The team has already shown its aggressive intent, animating the action in midweek races and showing no hesitation in taking on the bigger teams.
“We'll see how hard other teams make it from the beginning, but I think the plan for us would be to race aggressively because it shows that we want to race, and I think there are multiple that want to race, so I think that's the best chance for having a small group in the front,” Pieterse said.
Now, the focus is on converting her talent into victories. Pieterse has shown she belongs in the finals, but taking that next step is her clear goal.
“The next step is that she tries to finish it off,” said Cornelisse. “She's always there in the final, but now the next step is to win races. She's been already close a few times, but cycling is about winning races, and she is a winner. Hopefully everything goes well, and she finds the right tactic to win.”
Pieterse acknowledges that it’s all part of the process. “I think it's just the motor that has to grow still, to really have the final kick in the final but also just every race gaining more experience. If you come for the first time in the position where you have to sprint, for example, with two or three, you don't really know what to do and you maybe make a mistake. But you can learn from it, and then see different situations and know if you have to worry or maybe you recognise the situation, so the more you race the more experience you have.”
A valuable addition this season has been the input of Annemiek van Vleuten, whose legendary experience has been a guiding influence for Pieterse and the team.
“I think mainly to have patience,” Pieterse said when asked what Van Vleuten had taught her. “Because it's difficult sometimes, you want everything at once of course, but she just has so much experience in general, like every race situation she has been in already, so you can ask her anything, and when it comes from her you're more likely to stick to it and believe it than it when it comes from somebody who did not race. So it's a big plus.”
Cornelisse believes Pieterse’s fearless approach is part of what makes her special, and a trait the team has no intention of changing.
“Puck sometimes makes mistakes, but it's not bad to make a mistake. It's better than to do nothing. To do nothing is a mistake, but if you make a mistake then you did something with the plan to win,” he explained.
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“Sometimes you do it good, and sometimes you do it wrong, and that's maybe the problem with Puck. She's racing with her heart, she's always giving full gas, but that's also nice because that's what women's cycling needs, riders who give everything, so I don't want to change that with Puck. But now the last step is to win races.
“She was in Italy already close, Milan–San Remo she was also very good, but winning or tenth, that's only a small difference in how you ride the final. She's always enthusiastic and she always wants to race, and she wants to learn, that's also important.”
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