Last year Puck Pieterse was on the podium across the three Ardennes Classics, but there is no pressure to try and live up to that record, with the Fenix-Premier Tech rider recognising that even though her form is at a similar level, the rest of the peloton isn't.
The 23-year-old Dutch rider, who last year took third at Amstel Gold Race, won La Flèche Wallonne and was second at Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes, started off this week's run with tenth in the opening event, saying that while she didn't have her "best legs" at Amstel Gold Race, it was about more than that.
"The difference is that the overall level has increased," said Pieterse in a release from her team. "More riders have taken a step forward, so the racing has become harder."
A prime example of this, says Pieterse, is FDJ United-SUEZ, who won De Brabantse Pijl with Célia Gery, Paris-Roubaix with Franziska Koch, Tour of Flanders with Demi Vollering and Strade Bianche with Elise Chabbey.
“They’ve already won Classics with four different riders this spring, which says a lot. The overall level has clearly increased.”
That, however, doesn't mean that Pieterse is waving the white flag at a group of races that she has been building form toward as a key target, taking fourth at Milan-San Remo and third at Tour of Flanders, another key event for her, along the way.
"Of course you want that again," she said of last year's successful Ardennes run, "but it won’t be easy. I’d rather have one real standout result than three podiums.
"Hopefully, I can get that one big result, but I don’t feel the need to match anything. I’m in good shape, I’ll do my best, and we’ll see where that takes us.”
The rider will be turning to mountain biking once again after the Ardennes, coming back to the road for the Tour de France, but for this block, there are now two more opportunities to capture that top step once again.
What's more, for Wednesday's La Flèche Wallonne, she will be lining up with the number one on her back and with a team behind her that knows what it needs to do to help her chase it once again.
"Everyone knows what to do at the right moments," said Pieterse. "The tactics won’t change much. Like most teams: keep it together until the foot of the Mur and then go all out.”
Pieterse will have Lotte Claes, Sara Casasola, Yara Kastelijn, Carina Schrempf and Aniek van Alphen lining up alongside her.
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