"Winning is definitely possible" - Puck Pieterse takes stock of her own chances ahead of the World Championships
CyclingSaturday, 28 September 2024 at 06:00
Puck Pieterse will have a chance to add elite World Championships title on road before the cyclocross one. Bizarelly enough, the 22-year-old multi-talent only completed four road race days before this season. But now her stocks before the Zurich World Championships look very fine. Despite Demi Vollering starting as a clear leader for Netherlands, things can happen and Pieterse definitely isn't without a chance.
The circuit in Zurich is rather technical, something Pieterse could benefit from: "I've become even more of a fan of [the course]," Pieterse said in an interview with Algemeen Dagblad, pointing to the steep sections. "I already thought it would be something for me, but especially for a mountain biker this circuit is really good."
Pieterse is also heading towards the World Championships full of ambition, which may be held in soaking wet conditions. "Otherwise I wouldn't go on an altitude training camp," says the Dutch woman. "When you're at the start, you always have a chance to win. And we've seen some strange results at a World Championship before. Winning is definitely possible."
However, the multi-talent is not the clear leader of the Dutch team. With Demi Vollering, national coach Loes Gunnewijk has one of the top favorites, Pieterse also knows.
Read also
"There are a few women who stand out, Elisa Longo Borghini, Demi Vollering, Lotte Kopecky and Kasia Niewiadoma. They are the real top favorites that most will be looking at. But below that, the field is super wide. And this course invites you to race, so it also depends on what the other countries are planning."
"Riders like Vollering, Kopecky or Vos are so strong, they can force something", says Pieterse, who nevertheless believes in her own chances. "I myself will have to have a super day and others maybe a slightly lesser day. Everything has to go well. But whoever can win a stage in the Tour, can also win the World Championship. I have to believe in that."
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Why do the women CXs keep getting short changed with the length of theor races? They could have easily done another lap to put them at 50 minutes which is their time limit. Yet another CX race where they fail to reach this when they had a chance to. Come on ... the math isn't that hard to figure out lap times and divide into 50 min!frieders318-11-2024
- All pro cyclists are massively underpaid! The amount of riding and physical exertion they put their bodies through is crazy compared to other sports. I can't think of any other sport where you are physically active at a very high level of power output for hours on end each day.Pogboom17-11-2024
- When I was working for Starkist/Heinz my manager quit. So the next week my group was put under another manager. During our first meeting he asked if there was anything we needed to tell him. I said that I would be out the following week on vacation. He said "I don't know if I can let you go on vacation". I replied, "You can't tell if I can go. You can only tell me if I can come back".Sweep17-11-2024
- :-)Sweep17-11-2024
- What a mess there :-)
DareDevil17-11-2024 - So he read the comments here probably :-)DareDevil17-11-2024
- Alpecin is a MVDP and sprinter's team. It is unlikely that he will get a chance there as wellabstractengineer17-11-2024
- There’s no crying in cyclocross…Crashjames17-11-2024
- Pointless reporting. They are rivals, each tries their way to get their best result, with or without collaboration. As long as it’s all fair, why even report riders feelings about such stuff (yes I know, lack of other news). Anyone riding races will go through dozens of moments per race where they get emotional about the way someone else rides or takes advantage or doesn’t collaborate or more, it is natural, it is justified, it is NOT newsworthy!Mistermaumau17-11-2024
- I like that you can see you actually replied to you and not just to the same thread. :)Sweep16-11-2024