"The championships are extra important now" - Can Puck Pieterse take back Dutch title against van Empel, Brand and Alvarado?

Puck Pieterse has been back to cyclocross for three weeks now and her real form is starting to show. A few days ago she took an impressive win in Koksijde beating Lucinda Brand and Fem van Empel. Yesterday at the Dendermonde World Cup she settled for second, but is aiming to win the Dutch national championships this upcoming weekend against her rivals.

“It’s good. Until this weekend I hadn’t won yet and I hadn’t finished second either, so I think I can take that with me into next week," Pieterse said in words to Wielerflits. "I’m going to do some good cross training, focused on how the course will probably be on Sunday. For the rest, I’m taking it easy.”

Because of the sheer quality of the women's field in the Netherlands, the national championships are just as hard to win as the European and World Championships - her rivals will be the same riders. The Fenix-Deceuninck has now beaten the women that will go to battle against her in Oisterwijk and is aiming to reclaim the Dutch stripes as she had in the past. 

This is specially a big goal for her because she is not competing for any cup. So the national and World Championships are the two biggest goals of her CX season. “Certainly. If you don’t ride a full cyclocross season, you can’t go for a [cup] ranking or something like that. I had already missed races from every ranking before I even rode my first race. That’s why the championships are extra important now," she concluded.