Everything about Puck Pieterse

Who is Puck Pieterse?

Puck Pieterse, born May 13, 2002, is a Dutch cyclocross, mountain bike and road race specialist. Pieterse has had several successes in her young career, including victories in World Cup races in cyclocross and mountain biking alongside world titles. She represents the Fenix-Deceuninck team and is considered one of the greatest talents in cycling.

Name: Puck Pieterse
Birthday: May 13, 2002
Birthplace: Amersfoort, Netherlands
Pro: 2021
Height: 1.69m

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Puck Pieterse wins the 7th stage of the 2023 Telenet Superprestige cyclocross, Diegem, Belgium

Puck Pieterse was born on May 13, 2002 in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. She is a well-known Mountain Bike and Cyclocross specialist who is a leader in the emerging generation of female cyclists.

Pieterse soon began to show her talent in cycling. Since records began in her junior days, Pieterse has been a consistent winner and performer in more than one discipline, something increasingly common but still rare within professional cycling. In mountain biking, she became Dutch junior XCO champion in 2020. In 2022, when she turned pro, she focused more on the discipline and showed her talent quite abruptly. Pieterse became European under-23 champion that year and, among a few other strong performances, was also a World Cup winner in Leogang and runner-up at the World Under-23 Championships.

Despite the young age of 20 and 21 during the 2023 season , she rode as an elite all year and won as many as three World Cup rounds - in Nové Mesto, Leogang and Val di Sole - as one of the best. In addition to that World Cup competition, she also won the shorttrack competition in Les Ports du Soleil, but she also won the Dutch and European championships. At the end of the season, she also achieved podium finishes at the XCO and XCC world championships (Olympic and shorttrack, respectively).

On the road, she has not raced much so far, but she is part of the Fenix-Deceuninck team with a very large long-term contract starting in 2023. She rode only two races, but was notably fifth in Strade Bianche Donne.

In cyclocross she became European Under-23 Champion in the 2020-2021 season and in 2021-2022 she won the World Championships - this despite tough competition such as Fem van Empel, Shirin van Anrooij and Blanka Kata Vas. In the 2022-2023 season, she rode only once as an under-23 rider, where she won the European Championships. The Dutch rider rode almost the entire year as an Elite and scored many victories - although this was her third year of riding almost the entire winter at top level.

Victories in World Cups in Overijse, Hulst, Val di Sole and Besançon were huge triumphs, which she combined with a few more wins including the Dutch national championships. Pieterse finished second in the World Championships behind only Fem van Empel, who would become her new main rival.

In 2024 she had a breakthrough year on the road, finishing third at the Trofeo Alfredo Binda and Ronde van Drenthe; sixth at the Tour of Flanders; and eventually only returned to the road then in August with a debut at the Tour de France Femmes where she took a marvelous win in Liège after following eventual winner and runner-up in the race Katarzyna Niewiadoma and Demi Vollering.

In mountain biking is where she really excelled, showing talent unlike any other rider. After winning the European Championships in 2023 she once again repeated the success this year with a win in Cheile Grădiștei, Romania. She won two Short Track events and then an XCO World Cup in Les Gets. The Olympic Games was her big goal of the season but she finished a disappointing fourth place. That was perhaps compensated shortly after though as Pieterse became World Champion in Pal Arinsal, Andorra.