Multi-discipline star Puck Pieterse will swap her focus again to the street and make her debut on the upcoming Tour de France Femmes, after a late puncture within the Paris Olympics cross-country mountain bike race took away an all-but-certain silver medal.
The Tour de France Femmes is not going to solely be Pieterse’s first Grand Tour, additionally it is her first stage race at elite stage, together with her street profession thus far solely consisting of one-day occasions. Nevertheless, she has introduced dwelling a string of high outcomes regardless of her inexperience, together with fifth at Strade Bianche final yr, sixth at her first Tour of Flanders in April and just one end result outdoors the highest 10 in the entire of 2024.
Pieterse casually introduced the information on Dutch TV after the frustration of lacking out on a medal at Élancourt Hill within the MTB occasion, the place Pauline Ferrand-Prévot took dwelling gold for France.
“I will experience a tour, within the Netherlands, Belgium and France. With a end on Alpe d’Huez,” Pieterse mentioned on the NOS discuss present Studio Parijs
“I am trying ahead to that in the mean time.”
Pieterse was devastated after the mountain bike race, with the Dutch nationwide staff even contemplating protesting about silver medallist Haley Batten after the American rode via the pit zone “with out feeding or having technical help”. Nevertheless, Batten was rapidly given a tremendous however nothing extra, confirming fourth for the Dutch rider.
Turning her focus to the Tour permits Pieterse to maneuver on from the frustration rapidly.
The 2024 Tour de France Femmes begins in her dwelling nation the Netherlands on August 12, with three levels primarily based round Rotterdam for the race’s first overseas Grand Départ since its inception in 2022.
Her shut rival off-road rival, and present cyclocross World Champion, Fem van Empel (Visma-Lease A Bike) can also be anticipated to make her debut on the Tour de France Femmes which begins on August 12 and runs to August 18 with the grand finale up Alpe d’Huez.
Pieterse rides for Fenix-Deceuninck on the street, who had been one of many high groups eventually yr’s Tour, consistently leaping into breakaways and chancing their palms in opposition to the squads with a lot greater budgets.
Their aggressive racing ended with them touchdown a stage win on the fourth day in Rodez, as Yara Kastelijn survived within the breakaway and made Fenix-Deceuninck certainly one of solely seven groups to internet a TDFF stage win within the first two editions.
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