Puck Pieterse will not take part in the Road World Championships in Rwanda this September, despite being named in the Dutch squad by national coach Laurens ten Dam. The 23-year-old Fenix-Deceuninck rider has chosen to refocus her programme around the Mountain Bike World Championships in Valais, where she will aim to defend her rainbow jersey.
“In consultation we decided to remove the Road Worlds from her schedule,” Ten Dam told NOS. “With the MTB Worlds and everything else coming up for Puck, it was getting a bit much. Of course, I find it a pity, but I also know I will need Puck in the years to come.”
Pieterse had impressed in last year’s road Worlds, finishing 13th in the elite race in Zürich and securing the under-23 world title in the process. This season, though, her attention will be firmly on the off-road discipline, with Valais hosting the MTB Worlds from 9th to 14th September.
Whether Ten Dam will name a replacement for the road race in Rwanda remains unclear, but the Dutch squad still boasts extraordinary depth. Demi Vollering leads the line-up, supported by Anna van der Breggen, Marianne Vos and Pauliena Rooijakkers, with Shirin van Anrooij and Yara Kastelijn also selected. Riejanne Markus has been named first reserve, while Vollering and Van der Breggen will take on the individual time trial.
Even without Pieterse, the Netherlands will arrive as one of the strongest teams, with a clear ambition, in Ten Dam’s words, to “fight for nothing less than the highest steps of the podium.”
