They say that 4th place is the worst position to finish in the Olympic Games and in the women's mountain bike at Paris 2024, that distinction sadly fell on the shoulders of 22-year-old Dutchwoman, Puck Pieterse.
It could have been so much better for the multi-discipline star however, as although eventual gold medal winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot was a clear cut above the entire field, Pieterse was looking a comfortable second and on her way to a silver medal. That was at least, until disaster struck in the form of a late puncture, dropping the Dutchwoman right back down the field. Although she worked her way back up strongly, the podium ultimately was too big of an ask for Pieterse.
"This is the first time I've had a flat tire in a mountain bike race. I can't put it into words yet, actually," a visibly emotional Pieterse reflects in her post-race interview with NOS, fighting back the tears of disappointment. "Maybe it will happen, but not at the moment."
"I rode with an extra kind of cushion in my tire and that allowed me to continue riding after the puncture. I hoped that would be enough to dive into the material post with a bit of a lead, so that I could join the rest after the wheel change," she continues, noting how sadly that plan didn't exactly go perfectly. "Then I had to come back. If the race had been one lap longer, I think I could have finished second. In terms of values, I should have just gotten silver today."
"I kept getting closer and you know that they (Haley Batten, second, and Jenny Rissveds, third, ed.) can also get a puncture or fall. You secretly hope for that, but yes, that didn't happen," Pieterse concludes her assessment. "I rode a good race otherwise. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot was a lot better than me. I could live with that, so I kept fighting for second place, but oh well."
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