A tough first lap for Puck Pieterse in Dublin but after a strong return and a great battle, she finishes second and best U23 rider. Well done! 👏 #AlpecinDeceunick #CXWorldCup
Puck Pieterse laments "precious seconds" lost in Dublin as she loses sprint against Fem van Empel
CyclocrossMonday, 12 December 2022 at 22:00
The Dublin World Cup featured a very modest field in the women's race, however the rivalry between Fem van Empel and Puck Pieterse continued. Whilst the World Cup leader took another win, Pieterse was left regretting a mistake on the opening lap which may have cost her the win.
Whilst the riders were bunched up, Pieterse attempted to jump the barriers as she frequently does, but ended up crashing due to the amount of surrounding riders. She lost around 20 seconds in total due to the incident. “It was not ideal to jump at that time, but I decided to do it. I only got stuck in Denise Betsema's steering wheel. I could no longer jump my front wheel up," she described. "My chain has been off for a while. Unfortunately, that cost me time. I then decided to switch bikes right away, but those were precious seconds.”
What followed was a fierce chase, in which she eventually caught up with van Empel who had gone solo off the front. The two were then almost evenly matched, with both launching attacks that proved unsuccessful to drop the other. The two young Dutch riders went into the final lap alone, in what ended up being a sprint in the last minute of racing.
“I know that Fem is hard to beat in the back straight, so I decided to start earlier. I really went full throttle, but Fem had one last punch in her legs and went over it," Pieterse concluded. Despite missing out on the win, she reinforced her second place in the World Cup and continues to lead the under-23 classification.
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