"Let's go!" Puck Pieterse shouted into the microphone to her teammates after officials confirmed that she beat yellow jersey Demi Vollering in a photo-finish sprint to win stage 4 at the Tour de France Femmes in a rain-soaked Liège.
It was a suspenseful few minutes at the finish as Pieterse and Vollering stood side-by-side surrounded by photographers and journalists, waiting to find out who had won the stage. When it became clear that Pieterse had won by a whisker, the Fenix-Deceuninck celebrations ignited. Even Vollering couldn't help but show her enthusiasm, hugging her Dutch compatriot before they both rolled over to the podium ceremony.
"It's unbelievable. In the last few days, I had super good legs. The first day, I had good legs. On the second day, I had good legs. Today, I didn't feel my legs at all. It's always been good, and to win here in a sprint against Demi is a dream come true," Pieterse said.
When asked if she had always believed she could outsprint her breakaway companions Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) to take the win, Pieterse said, "I didn't know. I never sprinted against Demi, so I didn't know how that would go.
"I just went with my gut and tried to leave it all out there. Maybe I don't have a sprinter's body, but on the mountain bike, you have to be quite explosive, especially in the short track."
Pieterse, Vollering and Niewiadoma broke away from what was left of the field with 13.4km to go on the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons. Niewiadoma attacked on the final run-in, but Vollering closed the gap just as Pieterse launched her sprint from the third wheel. Vollering responded and the pair reached the finish line at the same time, officials later confirming Pieterse's victory.
"I knew they were riding for GC, and I'm here for the stage while I'm fresh. I could [play] poker a bit. I knew Kasia would attack and Demi would have to follow, so I just tried to keep a poker face and take it from a sprint," she said.
"I went quite early, in the end. I have never been here, so I didn't know where the finish line was. We had to wait for what felt like ages for the result but I'm so happy to take the win."
Pieterse arrived at the Tour de France Femmes directly from the Olympic Games, where she finished just out of the medals in fourth place in the mountain bike event, distanced after suffering an untimely flat time on lap five of seven.
"I worked up so much for the Olympic Games, and so when you have good legs there, you have good legs here," Pieterse said of her performance in Liège.
Asked if she felt she had to choose between mountain biking and road racing in the future, Pieterse said her schedule this season has led to top performances in both disciplines and that he would continue to race in both.
"For now, I don't have to make a choice because this fits perfectly into the racing block I have; build up to Olympics, then the Olympics, now this, and then two weeks after this, it's mountain bike worlds," she said.
"It shows that you don't have to make a choice; mountain bike and road can perfectly fit together. Maybe in the future, it will be difficult. I wasn't at the Ardennes this season because I wanted to build up to the mountain bike; of course, you have to make choices, but I think it shows that when you are fit and trained, then you can win on a mountain bike and on the road.
"It also shows how high the level of mountain biking is, and I am also here to represent that a bit. Next year, Pauline [Ferrand-Prévot] will do that as well and I look forward to battles with her on the road as well."
For Fenix-Deceuninck, Pieterse's victory marks their second at the Tour de France Femmes after Yara Kastelijn won the stage into Rodez last year, the two victories cementing their place at the top of women's cycling.
"It is so cool to see how the team has progressed over the years. We started, of course, as a road team that was more of a bunch of cyclocross riders riding together," Pieterse said.
"We became WorldTour, Yara won a stage last year, which was a massive boost for the team. It showed that we can be there when it matters. This is the biggest stage race for women right now. To show it two years in a row that we can be there is cool, and it only sets us up for the upcoming years and what is to come."
Pieterse said she looks forward to racing up Alpe d'Huez on the stage 8 Tour finale. She knows the climbing, having ridden up on August 3 and finished with a time of 52:20, the third fastest time on Strava behind Illi Gardner and Emma Pooley.
"I'm looking forward to that stage as well but first I try to recover and see what tomorrow and the day after brings," she said. "For a stage like [Liège], I am perfectly trained for the climbs in there, but Alpe d'Huez is something different; altitude, long efforts instead of the six-minute efforts. It is totally different, but if I had good legs here, then who knows?"
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