Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) strains up for a 3rd time in her profession at Strade Bianche and this time she is among the foremost 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 street racing scene, and expects to be within the working for a spot on the rostrum.
“The Strade Bianche was my first huge efficiency on the street ever, so the aim ought to simply be to compete for the prizes in that race once more. We will do our greatest in any case,” she mentioned in an interview with Wielerflits.
The multi-discipline racer, who competes throughout mountain bike, cyclocross and street, solely started competing on the world-class street 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 Via 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 powerful future in street 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 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 best efficiency in street racing to this point, beating Vollering to win stage 4 in Liège, after which securing the most effective younger rider classification.
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Pieterse believes that she has made extra enhancements in her street racing kind this yr, and certainly in her first race of the season at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, she was the one rider who might 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 Hotels) and Aurela Nerlo (Winspace Orange Seal).
“That exhibits that I’ve taken one other step,” Pieterse mentioned. “The good factor was that we began the Muur van Geraardsbergen fairly recent, which was maybe to my benefit to have the ability to comply with Demi. Last yr, I needed to let go on the Muur, this yr I might comply with. I used to be very pleased with that.”
At Strade Bianche on Saturday, Vollering, who received the 2023 version, would be the outright favorite and Pieterse is among the main contenders alongside a couple of of the game’s largest begins; Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team 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 results of her coaching block at Strade Bianche.
“We stayed in a high-altitude resort there. So final weekend it was nonetheless a little bit of a wait-and-see scenario, which is logical when you’ve gotten simply come from a high-altitude coaching camp,” she mentioned.
The girls’s discipline will compete throughout the 136km race that options one further gravel sector this yr for a complete of 50km break up throughout 13 sectors of off-road – a route that ought to completely swimsuit a rider like Pieterse.
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