Insights

Puck Pieterse: The 'Terrible Red' of world cycling

Puck Pieterse, Dutch born in 2002, is the new phenomenon of world cycling but, after the victory in Nove Mesto, some spectators of the mountain bike world did not know.

Written by

David Finetto

May 19, 2023

Puck Pieterse seems to say:"I made it big" watching Evie Richards - credits: Bartek Wolinski / Red Bull Content Pool

Puck Pieterse is there winner of the first round of the 2023 World Cup in Nove Mesto. The one who put behind none other than the world champion Pauline Ferrand Prevot, in a head-to-head that left no way out.

puck pieterse nine mesto — credits: UCI Mountain Bike World Series

Puck Pieterse, born in Amersfoort on May 13, 2002, is a Dutch athlete of Alpecin Deceuninck. Small anecdote: in Nove Mesto she got herself a nice birthday present given the race took place on Sunday 14th May.

In the world of cyclocross, her main discipline, she is known as "the terrible redhead", due to her red hair and the determination she shows in the race. In cyclocross, she is the U23, she was the 2020 European champion and 2022 cyclocross world champion. This year you decided to ask the UCI for the wild-card to race among the Elite in the World Cup XCO and at the Cyclocross World Championships... the U23 category is too tight for him and he wants to forge ahead.

Women's Elite World Championships podium 2023 — Puck Pieterse 2nd at the 2023 Cyclo-cross World Championships after asking the UCI to race among the Elites and not among the U23s. Picture by Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com

At the Cyclocross World Championships finished in 2nd place behind Fem Van Empel, another terrible Dutch who runs for Jumbo Visma. Let's open a small parenthesis: Fem van Empel was also born in 2002 and raced in Nove Mesto finishing in 17th place with number 82. Definitely another athlete to keep an eye on for the next stages given the great engine.

Puck Pieterse showed no technical limits in MTB demonstrating an excellent technique typical of multidisciplinarity, given the many phenomena we have been seeing in recent years. However, Puck Pieterse was not new to the MTB sector, having won the European title Cross Country and in 2022 the Les Gets world championship closed in 2nd place. Last year, 2022, was the 1st year where she really challenged herself in MTB and she didn't disappoint.

But in his career there is not only MTB and Cyclocross: the Red Terrible raced this year, with the professionals, the Strade Bianche finishing with a sensational 6th place! 136km for almost 4 hours of racing.

Puck Pieterse white roads — Puck Pieterse destroyed after 6th place at Strade Bianche 2023 with the pros -📸@facepeeters

U23 World Cup 2022 Women U23 podium — Puck Pieterse destroyed after 6th place at Strade Bianche 2023 with the pros -📸@facepeeters

The experts knew that she had what it takes to do well in Nove Mesto but few expected her to see her take the lead from Prevot. A magnificent season ahead XCO even among women!

It's about Puck Pieterse's stunning victory in the World Cup.

In this article:365People, Cyclocross, Cross Country, Puck Pieterse

Written by David Finetto

[email protected] I am a fan of everything that has 2 wheels: at a young age I practiced road and track cycling (Italian Allievi champion). At the age of 18 I passed into the cross country competing at national/international level as an Under23. Past Elite, I made the choice to take things more lightly from a training point of view, and my love for gravity disciplines was born, training me as an FCI MTB instructor and guide. Now I have made passion my profession by managing 2 MTB centers on the island of Elba (Bike Center Elba and Elba MTB), creating the FANTAmtb and telling in an ironic but professional way everything that revolves around MTB thanks to 365mountainbike and 365TV (YouTube'PULITI dentro BIKER fuori').