There’s a naiveté to Puck Pieterse and the way she races a road bike. The 22-year-old is still fresh in this particular discipline, still learning, but unquestionably powerful. She trusts her instincts more than any race radio, she has said before, and estimates risk in real time with a calculator that isn’t perfectly tuned just yet. So when Fenix-Deceuninck's rising star crossed the line first atop the Mur de Huy and cracked a grin, saying, “I actually listened to my sports directors for a change,” it felt less like a throwaway line and more like a quiet moment of evolution.
Because this was no cyclocross course. This was Flèche Wallonne, the 28th edition of the women’s race, with all its bruising heritage and the steely finish on one of cycling’s most unforgiving climbs. And Pieterse, still in only her second real season of road racing, played the game exactly as it’s meant to be played – and won.
A hard race won the hard way
The Mur de Huy doesn’t hand out victories to hopefuls or hangers-on. It’s too brutally honest for that. You either have the legs or you don’t. You either measure your effort perfectly, bide your time, hit the gas with 150 meters to go, well after the spot that feels most natural, or you go early and get passed. Unless you’re Tadej Pogačar this year, but let’s not even talk about that.
FDJ-Suez's Demi Vollering came into this race confident, and it showed in the location of her last-lap attack, just as the front of the peloton rounded the Mur's iconic final bend. The race is 50/50 from that spot; sometimes it's too early, sometimes it's spot on. On Wednesday, Pieterse was able to follow, and the interminable drag to the line proved too much for Vollering. She had to settle for second, with UAE Team ADQ's Elisa Longo Borghini just behind and last year's winner Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) just off the podium.
Pieterse measured everything on Wednesday. Her Fenix team rode like believers from the gun. They protected her, placed her perfectly into the penultimate lap, then one by one burned their matches to ensure she started the final climb with nothing but clear air and expectation in front of her. Fleche is a race of multiple leadouts, and all were immaculate. Pieterse said she was always second wheel at the foot of the Huy, every single time. “They just gave everything,” she said of her teammates. “And then they could come back and give another leadout again.”
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