Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) strains up for a 3rd time in her profession at Strade Bianche and this time she is among the important rivals set to problem outright favorite Demi Vollering on the white gravel roads into Siena on Saturday.
The reigning cross-country mountain bike world champion famous her improved kind in comparison with earlier seasons, particularly on the highway racing scene, and expects to be within the operating for a spot on the rostrum.
“The Strade Bianche was my first massive efficiency on the highway ever, so the purpose ought to simply be to compete for the prizes in that race once more. We are going to do our greatest in any case,” she mentioned in an interview with Wielerflits.
The multi-discipline racer, who competes throughout mountain bike, cyclocross and highway, solely started competing on the world-class highway racing scene in 2023.
Her first race that yr was at Omloop van het Hageland after which she lined up on the WorldTour’s Strade Bianche the place she completed fifth place on the finish of the punishingly steep By way of Santa Caterina and into the Piazza del Campo behind the day’s winner Demi Vollering, Lotte Kopecky, Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and Annemiek van Vleuten.
An indication of a robust future in highway racing, Pieterse was thirteenth at Strade Bianche final yr and secured seven top-10 finishes through the Spring Classics earlier than turning her consideration to the Paris Olympic Video games the place she was fourth within the cross-country mountain bike race.
In her debut on the Tour de France Femmes, she made her biggest efficiency in highway racing up to now, beating Vollering to win stage 4 in Liège, after which securing the very best younger rider classification.
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Pieterse believes that she has made extra enhancements in her highway racing kind this yr, and certainly in her first race of the season at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, she was the one rider who may stick with Vollering on the Muur van Geraardsbergen. The pair sprinted for the ultimate podium spot behind the main breakaway Lotte Claes (Arkea-B&B Lodges) and Aurela Nerlo (Winspace Orange Seal).
“That reveals that I’ve taken one other step,” Pieterse mentioned. “The great factor was that we began the Muur van Geraardsbergen fairly contemporary, which was maybe to my benefit to have the ability to observe Demi. Final yr, I needed to let go on the Muur, this yr I may observe. I used to be very proud of that.”
At Strade Bianche on Saturday, Vollering, who received the 2023 version, would be the outright favorite and Pieterse is one of the major contenders alongside a number of of the game’s greatest begins; Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Group ADQ), Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto).
She mentioned that her physique had recovered from the cyclocross season and that she had a possibility to coach within the hotter climate with Fenix-Deceuninck in Spain and is hoping to see the consequences of her coaching block at Strade Bianche.
“We stayed in a high-altitude lodge there. So final weekend it was nonetheless a little bit of a wait-and-see state of affairs, which is logical when you’ve simply come from a high-altitude coaching camp,” she mentioned.
The ladies’s subject will compete throughout the 136km race that options one further gravel sector this yr for a complete of 50km cut up throughout 13 sectors of off-road – a route that ought to completely go well with a rider like Pieterse.
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