Imagine lining up for your first-ever stage race, and it happens to be the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift - the biggest women’s cycling race in the world.
But rather than being intimidated by the grandeur of it all, Dutch cyclist Puck Pieterse is taking the Tour by storm, attacking the race favourites and sprinting to a photo finish on Stage 4 to take a stage win and the lead in two classifications — not bad for someone who, by her own admission, is still “just feeling it out” on the road
The 21-year-old is best known for her stellar cyclocross and mountain biking performances and her quick ascent in the dirt disciplines. Her gutsy racing and pure joy in riding bikes make her both a fan and a media favourite everywhere she goes.
With her sights set on the Paris Olympics mountain bike race, road racing thus far has been nothing but a side project. Before lining up for the Tour de France Femmes on Monday, she’d competed in just eight road races in 2024 and two in 2023.
But her eight-day spring campaign in 2024 saw her contest some of the year's toughest races, including Tour of Flanders and Strade Bianche. While inexperienced, Pieterse proved that she’s no ordinary talent. Of those eight races, she finished in the top 10 seven times, including a podium finish at Trofeo Alfredo Binda and the Ronde van Drenthe.
After wrapping up her short but successful campaign, Pieterse shifted her focus entirely to mountain biking, where she claimed three World Cup wins and the European title. But her much-anticipated Olympic campaign ended with the biggest disappointment of her young career: a flat tyre took her out of medal contention, and she finished fourth.
Following the mountain bike race, Pieterse went to altitude camp with her Fenix-Deceuninck teammates, the biggest goal of which was to get her mind off the disappointment and refocus on a new and exciting goal: her first Grand Tour.
Pieterse approached the Tour with a mix of excitement and uncertainty. “This will be my first stage race, so we’ll see how that goes,” she said, carefree and excited before the Tour’s start.
“In the spring, I learned a bit about how the peloton works, and I can climb a little, but those last two days are really big climbing days, and I’m not trained for that,” she said.
Instead, Pieterse is more than willing to play a supporting role for intended GC riders Yara Kastelijn and Pauliena Rooijakkers, but she’s not one to waste an opportunity to ‘have some fun with it’ either.
That ‘fun’ was had on Stage 4. The blue jerseys of Fenix-Deceuninck were never far from the front, riding aggressively and helping Kastelijn earn points for the climber’s jersey. On Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, the day's final launchpad, Kastelijn couldn’t quite keep up with pace and so Pieterse claimed the points over the top of the climb herself, moving her into the polka-dot jersey for the next day. Over the summit, only Pieterse, Rooijakkers, yellow-jersey wearer Demi Vollering (SD Worx - Protime) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) were left on the front. Off the quarter went, hoping to stay clear of the peloton as Liège neared. In their fight for the last bonus points of the day, Rooijakkers fell off the back. Now, only three were left and, as Pieterse put it after the race, the poker game began with 1K to go.
In the dash to the line, Niewiadoma made a last-ditch attempt to lose the faster sprinter but it was too late. Pieterse jumped first with 300 metres yet to go. But she held off her compatriot by a tyre width to claim her first UCI road win.
While she was in disbelief, her team director, Michel Cornelisse, expressed nothing but pride and confidence, stating: “When Puck participates, she only wants one thing, and that is to win.”
“I think she proved today what she’s capable of,” Cornelisse told Cycling Weekly. “If she can win here in Liège today, why couldn’t she win Liège Bastogne Liège?”
The days ahead are no Classics courses, however. Those wanting to hold on to a jersey of any kind will have to best some of the biggest climbs in cycling, including the biggest icon of the Tour de France itself: the Alpe d’Huez.
Still, Cornelisse has nothing but faith.
“We have two cards to play with. We know Pauliena [Rooijakkers] can handle the high mountains and I have no doubt [Pieterse] can hold her own in the mountain,” he said. “She’s in such good form. She’s certainly not going to hand the win over.”
Pieterse is also not unfamiliar with the Alpe d’Huez. She previewed the climb on August 3rd when she managed to climb herself onto the Strava leaderboard with the third-best time behind former pro and expert climber Emma Pooley and British national hill climb champion Illi Gardner.
Pieterse admitted that she has dreams on the road, but those “are probably a bit further in the future.”
That future may be coming sooner than she thinks, however, with a chance to prove herself up Alpe d’Huez just days away.
Take note because Puck Pieterse is doing more than ‘just feeling it out’—she’s making her mark, and she’s only just starting out.
