Since entering the pro circuit on a mountain bike in May, she has been riding everyone to pieces. World champions, Olympic champions, established names. When the only 21-year-old Puck Pieterse participates, they sometimes seem to be recreational. It’s the same in Poland, where the Dutch won gold at the European Games, also the European championship.
Door Walter Tempelman
At 741 meters above sea level, Pieterse flies over beams and rocks on top of Parkowa Mountain, rams through the mud and slides over the landscaped ‘pump track’ with the small hills. There are several well-known Polish spa hotels in the valley of Krynica Zdrój, but peace is hard to find high up there. Pieterse pounds, roars and blows everyone away. From start to finish she reigns supreme at the European Games on a tricky and accentuated course.
Until this year, Pieterse, a cyclo-cross racer, had not shown herself at all in mountain biking. In May she made her debut with a World Cup victory in Nove Mesto in the Czech Republic, last week she was the best in Austria. And now she’s leaving everyone behind again. She is a phenomenon, already. “It’s quite special actually. I have good form, but I don’t know exactly how I do it,” she says. “After those first World Cup races, I thought: ok, so this is possible, I can win in this field… And so I suddenly started here as the favorite.”
Bravery
The challenging course played into the hands of Pieterse even more in Poland. The all-rounder on two wheels is full of courage and bravery. On social media she shows her followers the craziest tricks and wheelies (without hands on the steering wheel, for example) and she often flies into the competitions uninhibited. “This course was one big playground. Awesome!” she says with an great smile on her face. “It was a bit atypical for mountain biking. That descent with those constructed tree obstacles was really cool. Three quick jumps in a row. Jumping fast, kind of like with the cross (cyclo-cross with a racing bike). Some women are not particularly skilled to get over that fast.”
Pieterse storms the elite of mountain biking with a speed rarely seen before. Suddenly a young, red-haired, fearless Dutch woman is the woman to beat within two months. The French world champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Olympic champion Jolanda Neff, European champion Loana Lecomte. They are all at the start on the mountain in Poland, but being the first to conquer it is impossible with Pieterse in their midst. “The elite riders already knew who I was before my first World Cup race. I rode well at the cross, at the promises. They kept an eye on me, but they wouldn’t have expected me to win three big games right away.”
Fans
Fame also includes fans who had probably never heard of Puck Pieterse two hours before the game on Sunday morning, but now suddenly see a top performer. After winning her match, Pieterse plows her way back up the mountain between her new supporters. Selfies are made and Pieterse signs self-made polka dot sweaters. Fame that can only grow if success is achieved at the Paris Olympic Games.
With a nomination already in the pocket and the current form, qualification should be fine (the Netherlands can send two riders if it remains among the best eight countries in the world). In Poland, the Dutch riders Anne Terpstra (6th) and Fem van Empel (10th) also placed in the top ten. Pieterse had little trouble with competition at the European Games. Ferrand-Prévot had material problems and despite the fact that Pieterse had a small crash, the other only saw her back. Austria’s Mona Mitterwallner finished 26 seconds behind. “Now that things are going so well, participation in the Olympic Games is not the only goal, of course I want to get a good result there. The Games are important, but it’s still in the back of my mind. First continue this line, in mountain biking and on the cross.”
In any case, Pieterse is well on his way to becoming the next Dutch glutton on two wheels, in the line of, for example, Marianne Vos and Mathieu van der Poel. Pieterse often hears a comparison with the latter. “I get it, you know. We are on the same team, we do different disciplines and we are also quite good at it.”