Results World Cup Hoogerheide | Puck Pieterse completes perfect weekend with second straight World Cup win

The women’s World Cup race in Hoogerheide delivered a tense and constantly shifting contest, but it was Puck Pieterse who emerged strongest once again, sealing a second consecutive victory and carrying maximum confidence into the World Championships in Hulst.

After an opening phase marked by repeated regrouping and probing attacks, the race only truly began to fracture in the second half. Pieterse and Amandine Fouquenet had gradually established themselves as the central figures, responding to each other’s moves as the elastic stretched and snapped across successive laps.

Multiple riders attempted to impose themselves at the front earlier on, including Sara Casasola, who briefly dictated the pace, and Blanka Vas, but the fast, drying circuit repeatedly pulled the race back together. Crashes and small errors thinned the field without delivering a decisive split.

That finally changed midway through the race when Pieterse increased the pressure lap after lap on the same steep climb. Fouquenet matched her efforts with composure, reading the danger and refusing to crack, and the pair eventually carved out a narrow advantage that briefly looked decisive.

Once again, however, Hoogerheide resisted a simple outcome. A late regrouping saw Kristyna Zemanova, Katarina Chladonova and Shirin van Anrooij bridge across, turning the race into a five rider showdown heading into the final lap.

Fouquenet was the first to apply pressure in the finale, lifting the pace as she chased a first ever World Cup victory after earlier successes in the Superprestige series. That acceleration proved costly. As the French rider began to fade, Pieterse and Zemanova seized their moment.

Pieterse struck first. Accelerating sharply, she opened a small but decisive gap of around ten metres. Zemanova responded bravely, digging deep and refusing to concede, but the Dutch rider maintained her advantage through the final technical sections and onto the run in to the finish.

Behind them, Fouquenet slipped out of contention for the win, unable to respond to the final acceleration, while the fight for the remaining podium places settled in her absence.

At the line, Pieterse completed a perfect weekend. Less than 24 hours after her victory in Maasmechelen, she raised her arms again in Hoogerheide, underlining her form and momentum at precisely the right moment. With two World Cup wins in two days, she now heads to Hulst as one of the defining riders of the winter, and one brimming with confidence as the World Championships loom.