Puck Pieterse will race at least ten cyclocross events this winter, with her programme potentially stretching to thirteen races, as the Dutch rider builds towards her clear main objective of the season: the world championships in Hulst at the end of January.
The 23-year-old will make her cyclocross return this Sunday at the World Cup in Namur, a race widely regarded as one of the toughest and most prestigious on the calendar. It marks the start of a compact but carefully managed winter campaign, shaped around peak condition for the worlds rather than chasing every possible start.
Speaking to WielerFlits, Pieterse was clear about her priorities. “The most important thing is that my biggest goal is the World Championships again. I really want to be at my best there,” she said.
A focused winter programme
After Namur, Pieterse will head into a busy Christmas period that includes World Cup rounds in Antwerp, Koksijde, Gavere and Dendermonde. She will then round out the year at the evening cross in Diegem on 30 December, a race she has regularly used as a sharp, high-intensity test.
The early weeks of January are set to include Baal, Zonhoven and the Dutch national championships. Beyond that, her schedule becomes more flexible. The three January World Cups in Benidorm, Maasmechelen and Hoogerheide are currently listed as provisional, with a final decision to be taken closer to the time depending on how her build-up towards Hulst develops.
“The idea was to see how things went during the training camp, and then decide based on that whether or not I would make my return in Namur,” Pieterse explained after a December training camp in Spain. “I can now confirm that I’ll be starting, so it should be good.”
Why Namur matters
Namur is not an easy place to open a season, but that difficulty is part of the appeal. The technical banks, repeated climbs and heavy conditions provide immediate feedback on form and sharpness.
“Over the past three years of cyclocross racing, I’ve been able to compete for the win and the podium fairly consistently. I expect to be able to show that this year as well,” Pieterse said. “I especially hope to have a great time and get confirmation that I’m in good shape.”
Enjoyment remains a key factor in her approach. “If I wasn’t enjoying it, I’d skip it and just focus on my spring season,” she added.
Hulst firmly in focus
The world championships in Hulst on 31 January are the clear centrepiece of Pieterse’s winter. The circuit holds positive memories for her, both in terms of results and the technical nature of the course.
“I have an especially good history with Hulst,” she said. “It’s a bit of wait and see to see how the course adjustments work out, but Hulst is a circuit I enjoy. The technique and those banks up and down suit me. It’s very different from somewhere like Oostende, which I like less.”
Hulst represents her best opportunity yet to claim a first cyclocross rainbow jersey, something that remains missing from an already remarkable palmarès across road, cyclocross and mountain bike disciplines.
Balancing three disciplines
Pieterse’s cyclocross winter fits into another multi-disciplinary season that closely mirrors her 2025 structure. After the worlds, her focus will shift back to the road for the Spring Classics, before turning her attention to cross-country mountain biking later in the year. The Tour de France Femmes is again on her schedule, followed by another tilt at the XCO world championships, a title she won in 2024 before finishing sixth in her defence in Crans-Montana this October.
Looking back on 2025, Pieterse described it as “a very good year” and her strongest spring to date. She raced a full Classics campaign for the first time and never finished outside the top ten in her eleven one-day starts between Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, with La Flèche Wallonne Féminine standing out as the highlight.
“I actually really enjoyed taking in the whole spring,” she said. “After that, things went better than ever on my mountain bike in my rainbow jersey. Around the Tour de France Femmes I wasn’t fully fit, and crashing twice didn’t help, but overall what I showed was definitely on par with the year before.”
Looking ahead
This winter is about precision rather than volume. With Namur as the starting point and Hulst as the finish line, Pieterse’s cyclocross campaign is designed to sharpen form, confirm condition and arrive at the world championships ready to perform.
Her return this weekend also adds further weight to an already strong Namur start list, with Mathieu van der Poel making his season debut on the men’s side. For Pieterse, however, the message is simple and consistent: everything this winter leads towards one race, on one course she believes suits her perfectly.
