"Constantly faced with pressure from behind" - Puck Pieterse takes dramatic victory in Hulst to continue winning momentum

In one of the most exciting, dramatic and thrilling races of the winter so far, Puck Pieterse held off a late surge from Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado to take victory at the UCI World Cup in Hulst.

“I had a lead of ten to twenty seconds throughout the entire cross but on the last lap I knew Lucinda Brand and Ceylin were fighting hard," she explains in her post-race interview. "Then I made a mistake on a not-so-difficult part, I came to a stop. There I saw my lead disappear. But after the steep part uphill I had my part – with turns, a bit of sprinting – so I felt confident that I could finish it if I was still at the front there.”

Although world champion Fem van Empel was held up by a crash, the fact Pieterse already had a clear lead at that point should not be forgotten. “It's always quite tricky here. It was also slippery in between. Then you just have to stay on your bike. I couldn't really see what they were doing behind me. Every now and then I could hear how many seconds I had, but it was difficult because there was so much crowd," Pieterse reflects. "So it had to be based on feeling. At the points where I could look a little, I saw that the difference always remained somewhat the same.”

In the end, despite the epic fightback by Alvarado, Pieterse held on for victory. “In Gavere, Diegem and Hulst I always had a small lead at the start. On the one hand, that is very nice, because you can drive your own lines. But on the other hand, you are constantly faced with pressure from behind. They never went far, of course. That makes it difficult to stay sharp. I also made a mistake in the last lap, but that's because you think: I can't make mistakes,” she concludes.