Puck Pieterse is a rider who is used to being in a category of one. On the mountain bike, the Fenix-Deceuninck rider races without teammates, and often alone in the lead on the way to victory. In cyclocross, it’s often a two-rider battle with Visma-Lease a Bike’s Fem van Empel, with one or the other soloing to the win.
Even in her forays on the road in the Spring Classics the last two years, she’s been Fenix’s sole focus, their only rider capable of being in the mix deep into the finale of most tough one-day races. Though the pressure seems to bounce back off her, it’s fair to say it’s often the one-woman Puck show.
But on a sodden Wednesday afternoon in Liège, Belgium as she crossed the line in front of Demi Vollering to claim her first pro road win – in the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, no less – it was anything but a solo effort. Her victory on stage 4 was the result of a meticulously planned and expertly executed strategy from Fenix-Deceuninck, using their perhaps-underrated strength to wear down much bigger teams, and place Pieterse – though it could have been any of their riders – into a winning position.
All for one, one for all
Possibly the most interesting thing to note is that this morning, when the stage rolled out of Valkenburg for the Tour’s mini-Ardennes race, it wasn’t only Pieterse they were focusing on as their stage hopeful.
“We wanted to make the race hard on the Mont-Theux, because we had Pauliena Rooijakkers and she doesn’t feel so well in a big group, so that’s why we wanted the group split up so that she was more relaxed,” sports director Michel Cornelisse told the media after the stage, highlighting their GC hope Rooijakkers who is fresh off of fourth overall at the Giro d’Italia Women last month.
“We started riding [on Mont-Theux] with the whole team. Then on La Redoute, we started again, and all the climbs we were on top with the team,” Cornelisse continued. “Then in the end, it was a dream scenario. It’s four riders in front with Vollering, Niewiadoma, and Rooijakkers and Puck Pieterse, so for us it was just fantastic. I think we really deserved this win, because we didn’t steal it. It was really a team effort.”
Whilst some team efforts play out perhaps before the broadcast is live, or in ways only appreciated by the riders, Fenix-Deceuninck’s assault on stage 4 was clear as day to even the most novice of viewers. Along with 2023 Tour stage winner Yara Kastelijn, the navy blue jerseys of Pieterse and Rooijakkers were never off the front of the bunch, putting in energy-sapping accelerations, and really being the team responsible for the hard pace over the climbs.
Though it was Pieterse who came out on top, she wasn’t shying away from putting in the hard yards alongside her teammates, and it seemed like they were working for any one of them. Though the 22-year-old Pieterse is the biggest name, Kastelijn is the proven winner here, and Rooijakkers is their protected GC rider. Fenix-Deceuninck weren’t riding based on star power; they were riding with a commitment to teamwork, merit and the common goal.
“The girls fight so hard for it,” Cornelisse said, giving credit to the whole effort. “I’m a very proud sports director.”
For Pieterse, this role as team member and not just squad-of-one was something she was looking forward to pre-race, but no one could have known how it would play out. Having to work to a plan and consider the aims of others is a new challenge, but Pieterse stepped right into it.
“We stayed out of trouble all day. I was riding in the first few rows all day, but in the wheel of the team, so I was out of the wind, which was really nice,” she said. “I just tried to save energy. Then the race started on La Redoute, and we tried to hold position and work together where we could.”
The three Fenix riders worked together like a well-oiled machine, and once Rooijakkers dropped out of the four-person group that they made up half of, it was just up to Pieterse to finish off the job. And of course, being Puck Pieterse, that’s exactly what she did.
How far can this team go?
After their commanding performance on stage 4, and now with two jerseys and two riders in the top 10 to their name, questions will begin to rumble about what this Fenix-Deceuninck squad can achieve once the Tour reaches Alpe d’Huez.
For Pieterse, there is still a huge question mark over her ability in the high mountains, and she’s clear that despite being second overall, GC is not a serious focus – “I’m just here for the stage while I’m fresh,” she said – but that doesn’t mean she won’t try, and today’s win will surely help.
Cornelisse is a believer. “She was there on training camp, we were in La Plaigne, and I think she can also do that [the mountain stages] especially when she has the morale and the legs of course,” he said. But Pieterse herself isn’t so sure.
“I don’t know!” was Pieterse’s answer on her feelings about the weekend’s mountain stages, which will be her first attempt at that kind of racing, and which comes at the end of her first-ever stage race.
“We’ll have to see. I’m looking forward to that stage as well,” she said of the final day, “but first I try to recover, and see what tomorrow and the day after brings. Alpe d’Huez is something different, at altitude, long effort instead of the six-minute efforts, so it will be really different, but if I have good legs then who knows.”
One thing Pieterse doesn’t have to worry about is pressure from the team; Fenix’s GC hopes certainly don’t live and die with her. Now up to sixth overall after being one of the better-off riders after stage 3’s time trial, Rooijakkers is serious threat for the top five, even the podium. The experienced Dutch climber lacked the final piece on Wednesday, but should come good in the higher mountains, and her fourth in the Giro proves she is going well. When she moved to the team this year, the lack of climbing support placed a question mark over her GC chances, but that’s certainly not an issue so far.
If Fenix-Deceuninck can continue to bring it together as a team like they did on the wet roads of Belgium, they may just be some very serious contenders in the battle to win this race.
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