She wasn’t in any pre-race previews or predictions. While others were preparing for the Tour de France Femmes at altitude camps, she was getting ready to compete in mountain biking at the Olympic Games. She has never even ridden a stage race before. Tuesday was the first time she’s been on a moving time trial bike. Now, she has outsprinted two-time Tour champion Demi Vollering to clinch a stage victory in the world’s biggest bike race and, at the mid-way point, she sits second on the general classification. 22-year-old Puck Pieterse is good at surprises.
Those who have been following her progress this season might have had an idea of what the Fenix-Deceuninck rider was capable of. While she has focused largely on her off-road exploits this season, Pieterse’s Classics campaign earlier this year showed signs that she is a rider with boundless talent on the tarmac too. There were the third places in Ronde van Drenthe and Trofeo Binda, then the top-10 finishes in Strade Bianche, Omloop het Nieuwsblad, Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Tour of Flanders. Pieterse can ride bikes, alright, but contesting for yellow at the Tour de France? Can she really pull off the biggest surprise of them all?
“Of course we know that she's an extremely talented rider. I know her from Classics racing. I've never seen her race on longer climbs,” Kasia Niewiadoma of Canyon//SRAM commented after Pieterse’s stage four victory when questioned about if she is considering the young rider to be a general classification rival. “Maybe because she’s a mountain biker she will be missing a bit more endurance than what we roadies have. I take her into account because she’s very talented and strong but I’m still focused mainly on beating Demi.”
Niewiadoma’s hesitation over whether Pieterse will really be a player in the high mountains later in this race is understandable given the Dutch rider’s stage racing experience (or serious lack of it), but Pieterse’s current form also means she cannot be fully counted out. Current yellow jersey wearer Vollering explained that she’s intrigued to see how Pieterse performs on the long climbs of Le Grand Bornand and Alpe d’Huez.
“I’m curious what she can do on the long climbs. She is so talented, so maybe she can surprise us. We will see the GC for the other days, but I’m curious what she can do,” Vollering stated in her post-race press conference.
The most exciting thing about Pieterse’s surprise appearance in the general classification battle of the Tour is that her potential is completely unknown, even to herself. No one expected her to come fifth at Strade Bianche in 2023 (her first ever Women’s WorldTour race) and no one expected her to be beating Vollering on her Tour debut. She represents a breath of fresh air in this race – the up-and-coming, plucky young talent who has the ability to seriously upset the applecart.
“I don’t know. I have to see,” Pieterse responded honestly when she was asked about her expectations of the mountain stages this weekend. “I’m curious and looking forward to those stages but I need to try and recover and see what tomorrow and the day after brings. I think for a stage like Alpe d’Huez, I’m perfectly trained for the climbs, but it is something different at altitude. It's a long effort so it will be really different, but if I have good legs then who knows.”
Of course, those who best know Pieterse’s potential are the people closely involved in her development within the Fenix-Deceuninck organisation. Her sports director, Michel Cornelisse, spoke about the 22-year-old’s impressive winning mentality after his team's stage win, which is why he believes that nothing is impossible for Pieterse.
“Our first goal was to win a stage then do a good GC, we won the stage and now we have to see, the GC is still in our heads and we want to have two riders in the top-10. When Puck has the morale and the legs then she can be there,” Cornelisse commented. “She has surprised me that she is winning stages, but she already showed very good things, she was in the top-10 at Flanders, then at Nieuwsblad and in Strade Bianche she was always in the front. She’s one of the best riders, even when training in combination with the Olympics. She has a good character as a sportswoman, she always wants to win and does a lot of different things for it, she’s a winner.”
Regardless of whether Pieterse is able to pose a challenge in the yellow jersey fight as the Tour de France Femmes continues, however, the Fenix-Deceuninck rider should take time to enjoy her first ever Grand Tour stage victory. It was a breakthrough win and a sign that she is going to be an important player in the women’s peloton in the years to come. While race leader Vollering will be forced to watch Pieterse carefully on this weekend's mountain stages, the SD Worx rider was keen to stress the importance of keeping the pressure off Pieterse’s shoulders. She may have pulled out a surprise victory today, but her career is only just beginning.
“I think she has a lot of talent and can do so much,” Vollering said. “Her strength is also that she has so much fun and I hope she doesn’t change that. She should do it as long as possible and year by year she can improve things. She doesn't need to go too fast.”
