Leonie Bentveld has spent much of this winter doing something that used to feel like an exception for an under-23 rider: quietly holding her place inside the elite top 10 with enough regularity that it now reads like a baseline. With the major championships looming, the Dutch European U23 champion has described January as “money time”, her fourth and final opportunity to chase the U23 rainbow jersey.
Speaking in a video interview with WielerFlits, Bentveld sounded measured rather than carried away by the moment, but clear about where her season is pointing.
A fresher winter, built around World Cups
Bentveld’s winter programme has been deliberately narrow. Rather than racing every weekend, she has largely limited her schedule to the World Cup, a choice she believes has helped her arrive at this phase with more in reserve.
“Actually it’s going pretty well. I’ve only ridden the World Cups, so I haven’t done anything too crazy,” she told WielerFlits. “I’ve come through the season reasonably fresh. The goal was to ride well in the World Cup and that’s gone well.”
That freshness matters because Bentveld is trying to peak for championship races, where the U23 category can be unforgiving. One bad start or one technical mistake can turn a season’s work into a long ride home.
“Very nice”, Bentveld says as Fouquenet joins Pauwels Sauzen
Since the turn of the year, Bentveld has also gained a new, high-profile team-mate in the women’s cyclo-cross squad, with French champion Amandine Fouquenet joining the Pauwels Sauzen set-up and immediately winning the Superprestige round in Gullegem.
Bentveld welcomed the signing not as a headline moment, but as a practical upgrade to how the team can race.
“Really nice. I think it’s really important for the team to be able to race at the front with multiple riders,” she said.
Her reasoning was straightforward. A team with one protected rider can be isolated quickly, especially on courses where positioning is everything. An extra rider capable of riding near the front changes how rivals respond, and can reduce the need for Bentveld to cover every move herself.
The personal upside: company on camps and recon rides
Bentveld also spoke about the day-to-day benefit. Even at the elite level, cyclo-cross is a sport built on repetition, travel and long stretches away from home. A second woman in the group alters the training dynamic in ways that do not show up on a results sheet.
“It’s good for me that there’s some female company added for camps and training,” Bentveld said. “I think we can only get better from that.”
They do not know each other well yet, and Bentveld acknowledged a language gap.
“And my French isn’t very good, but we manage fine in English,” she added.
The geography will make regular shared training difficult, with Bentveld based in the Kempen region and Fouquenet living near the French border, but Bentveld expects camps, course recon and race weekends to provide enough overlap to make the partnership meaningful.
Dutch nationals first, but Hulst is the real target
Bentveld will race the Dutch championships in Huijbergen this weekend without a team-mate alongside her in the race itself. Although she is still eligible for the U23 category, the Dutch championship is contested together with elite riders.
“I’m still racing as an under-23, but we race together with the elite women,” she said. “So it would be nice to fight for a podium in the top category. If all the Dutch top riders are on the start line, you know it will be difficult. We’ll see. I approach the nationals like any other cross.”
That calm approach is deliberate. Bentveld is not trying to frame Huijbergen as her make-or-break day, because the bigger objective sits later in the month at the World Championships in Hulst, where she has already taken two bronze medals in previous U23 editions.
Her motivation came through most clearly when she compared a national title with a world title.
“I think I would trade all my Dutch titles for a rainbow jersey,” Bentveld said. “Not to downplay the Dutch title, but the Worlds is something else.”
She also hinted that the shape of the U23 Worlds race may shift in her favour, suggesting she would no longer have to fear certain rivals in the category, a reflection of how quickly eligibility and programme choices change in women’s cyclo-cross.
Why Bentveld’s winter feels different
Bentveld’s upward curve is not only about cyclo-cross. She spent last summer within the environment of WorldTeam AG Insurance-Soudal, and while she did not lean on that experience as a talking point, it helps explain the greater certainty in how she is approaching this winter: controlled scheduling, clear targets, and fewer wasted race days.
At 21, the Dutch rider from Burgum has already built a junior palmarès that included World Cup success and a junior world silver medal, then stepped into the U23 ranks as a national champion. What stands out now is not the list of titles, but the way she is carrying herself closer to the level above her age category.
This month will decide whether that progress becomes the one result still missing from her cyclo-cross story: a rainbow jersey won on the day she has been building towards, rather than another medal earned while still chasing the top step.
