Puck Pieterse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) claimed her second World Cup victory in as many weeks as she delivered an assured display on a muddy Hulst course to solo home ahead of Fem van Empel (Pauwels Sauzen Bingoal).
The race was conditioned by Van Empel’s crash midway through the race, but Pieterse showed poise to overcome two slips of her own on the last two laps en route to another World Cup win.
Pieterse finished 42 seconds clear of Van Empel, with Shirin van Anrooij (Baloise Trek Lions) coming in 1:47 down to round out the podium.
“I started really fast with a small gap but then Fem closed it, on the second or third lap, I think,” Pieterse said. “Then, when she took over, she crashed. I believe her derailleur was in crash mode and her bike was a bit fucked so I got a lot of free seconds there. From then on, I just had to push really hard everywhere
“It was such a hard one with all the climbing. I felt that Fem was stronger on that part, so I got a bit lucky today, I think, with Fem’s crash, but otherwise it could also have been a battle for first and second.”
Pieterse, who won the first World Cup race of her young career last weekend in Overijse, got off to a flying start here, building up an early advantage on the opening lap, while some of those who raced in Kortrijk on Saturday, such as Denise Betsema, were noticeably struggling to match her sharpness in that initial phase.
Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Alpecin-Deceuninck), second in Kortrijk, was Pieterse’s closest pursuer on the opening lap, but she would start to pay for her efforts on the muddy course at Hulst as the race drew on.
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Van Empel caught and passed Alvarado on the opening lap, and she closed to within 6 seconds of Pieterse when they came past the start-finish line for the first time. By then, it already seemed that a duel was in store, with Alvarado 19 seconds down and Shirin van Anrooij at almost half a minute.
Pieterse withstood Van Empel’s pursuit on the next lap, maintaining an eight-second advantage, but Alvarado and Van Anrooij were already over a minute down. At the beginning of the third lap, Van Empel succeeded in bridging across to Pieterse and she shot past her fellow countrywoman in an effort to put her under pressure on the technical sections.
Van Empel’s challenge was ruined, however, when she crashed on a mud-slicked descent and her misfortune was amplified when her electronic gears appeared to become locked in crash mode, which was an obvious limitation on the climbs that followed.
Pieterse duly extended her advantage to 59 seconds by lap’s end and the race was all but over as a contest. Van Empel fought gamely after a bike change, but she was reliant on an error from Pieterse to get back in the hunt. A couple of errors did come, mind, as Pieterse slid off on the same descent as Van Empel on each of the last two laps, but the Dutchwoman was immediately back on her bike and – crucially – she didn’t suffer the kind of mechanical mishap that befell her fellow countrywoman.
Van Anrooij took third at 1:47, with Alvarado fending off Lucinda Brand (Trek Baloise Lions) to come home in fourth, just over two minutes down on Pieterse.
Barry Ryan was Head of Features at Cyclingnews until 2024. He is currently Editor-in-chief at Domestique. He has covered professional cycling since 2010, reporting from the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and events from Argentina to Japan. His writing has appeared in The Independent, Procycling and Cycling Plus. He is the author of The Ascent: Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche and the Rise of Irish Cycling’s Golden Generation, published by Gill Books.
