Puck Pieterse laments "precious seconds" lost in Dublin as she loses sprint against Fem van Empel
Cyclocross
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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- I'm deeply sick of this guy and his unwillingness to race seriously for more than a month or two. I'll never respect riders who do that. Seixas will be stronger than him next season, and maybe Del Toro as well. I don't even think he'll finish on the podium at any GT where Pogi, Seixas, and Del Toro are racing.megasmacky15-11-2026
- Not a chance in hell.megasmacky15-11-2026
- If you go watch some races from last season other riders that have never caught Jonas...are now catching him. Some are just riding away from him and he can't hold the wheelmd197514-11-2026
- He just doesn't have the desire anymore. I read an article earlier today that said he almost retired last year. His reasoning was he is away from home to much. Visma was able to keep him riding by allowing him to skip certain camps. So, while currently Visma is doing altitude work...Jonas is at home. Which means 2 things. 1- He maybe fresher than other riders. But, not the condition. 2-Is a somewhat slap in the face to others on the team that are supposed to help him win. Yet feel like he hasn't done what they have so perhaps they don't provide as good of protection or they ride more for theme (which the team may not notice).md197514-11-2026
- Roglic could not have won anyway, after Jonas followed him when Roglic decided it was his turn for a stage win. Jonas had already attacked Kuss twice, so it was Jonas who was within seconds of taking the lead before Kuss was 'gifted' the win. It felt a bit like Roglic was being thrown under the bus when the team made his unhappiness public.Hills3314-11-2026
- POG1, another nice doc about our favourite, I watched most of it with a big smile on my face (except for the bits about his crashes 😢 obvs!).Lozza14-11-2026
- Martinez had a good year! 5th at the Tour was a great result for him, albeit largely through getting in successful breaks, but he held it better than Pidcock who’d done the same.Lozza14-11-2026
- guess what Valgren, you're 34, and no you're not good enough. sorry to say.mij14-11-2026
- I'm a sepp fan and like to think he earned that LOL, indulge me : ) I think Jonas was fine. Roglic did not want to concede to Sepp. and I don't think you ever attack your own teammate in the leaders jersey if he is holding his own, which Sepp just about was.mij14-11-2026
- enough time? he's 24 years old. He's won 10 races over the last 2 years and some are significant. I won't argue about his attitude being good - it needs to improve. But with some coaching and mentorship he has a lot of winning ahead of him and has plenty of time to win a GT. I don't think he will ever beat Tadej, but everyone else is fair game Look at Mas and Valverde - they were 31 and 29, respectively, when they won the Vuelta.mij14-11-2026
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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
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