Puck Pieterse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) showcased her Olympic Cross Country form only weeks ahead of the Olympic Games in Paris with a 2:37 winning margin over Candice Lill (South Africa) at the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series in Les Gets.
Pieterse broke away from the first lap, having come second to Alessandra Keller (Thömus Maxon) in the short track race on Friday, to ride solo all the way to the finish ahead of Lill in second place and Keller in third at a margin of 3:07.
“I'm just super happy,” Pieterse said immediately following the race finish. “On Friday [at the short track event], I already felt that so good legs but maybe I didn't take the smartest tactic.
“Now I know if I have good legs, that I can do it from the start, and I just tried to go full gas from the start and luckily it worked out," she continued.
“We had a really good training camp with the team and I'm just happy to show my good form here.”
Speaking about her early attack and race tactic, she said, “I knew it was a climber course so I just tried to push every climb to my fullest and then take a bit less risks in descents.
“On the last lap I got a bit tired and made some mistakes, but luckily I had a big enough gap.
The win marks Pieterse’s fourth mountain bike win of the season, having won the CC Europe XCO, and the XCC at the World Cup in Val di Sole and Crans-Montana.
Results
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Tessa Beebe takes second place, and Ada Watson is third in Fayetteville, Arkansas -
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Exact Cross Kortrijk: Niels Vandeputte beats Cameron Mason with final lap surge to win the Leiecross
Belgian take second victory of the season in a close race as Ryan Kamp finishes in third
