Puck Pieterse continues to make waves as she sails towards Tour of Flanders debut

Puck Pieterse's (Fenix-Deceuninck) stock in the Spring Classics continues to rise ahead of her much-anticipated debut in the Tour of Flanders after another impressive top-five finish at Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday.

The off-road specialist, who has ramped up her road experience this season, formed part of the race-defining move inside the final 30km, with Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike), Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco), Elisa Longo Borghini, Shirin van Anrooij and Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek) splitting the race to pieces.

Vos and Van Anrooij clipped off the front in the closing stages, with Vos taking the win but Pieterse – who had driven the first break – came home in fifth. The 21-year-old has five top-10s this year, including two podiums, and is an outside bet ahead of her Flanders debut.

“It was really tough. If I could, I would have worked harder to get back to Shirin and Marianne because I’d rather have given everything to come back but then I had to wait for the sprint for third place. But I was so tired from all the climbs and the attacks that I did. So I could only follow in the final, and I think that Lidl-Trek played it really smart by getting Shirin in front. So Marianne won the sprint but she’s so good, so that was no surprise for me,” Pieterse told GCN at the finish.

• Read more: Dwars door Vlaanderen: Marianne Vos outsprints Shirin van Anrooij after an impressive ride

The Tour of Flanders wasn’t originally on Pieterse’s race programme, and even ahead of her appearance in Strade Bianche at the start of March, she had told GCN that her road campaign would end before the cobbled Monument. However, her form has been so good that both the rider and team have decided to draw out the road schedule before dialling back and refocusing on her mountain bike build-up towards the Olympic Games in Paris.

“We saw quite quickly that things were going well so we added Flanders. It’s the biggest race, so it’s really cool to be starting there,” she added.

Flanders represents a tougher test than Dwars door Vlaanderen but the Dutch rider is excited and well prepared for what’s to come. Her confidence is high but also backed up with an assuredness that stems from her results and continued improvement.

“I hope to be up there with the front group. I hope that I can follow for as long as possible or maybe do something myself. It would be really cool to be in the top five,” she said.

And she feels as though the decision to prolong her road season could even have a benefit on her overall fitness, even if some mountain bike events have needed to be ditched. 

“For training, it’s good because with road racing you get your hours in. For the mountain bike races, I have to skip the first two World Cups in Brazil, so I’ll start a bit later in the World Cup season but that’s the only thing that’s sacrificed,” she told GCN.

However, there’s no chance of Pieterse going deeper into the spring and adding Paris-Roubaix to her plans.

“Flanders is only four more days but if you add Roubaix then it just keeps going and we need to draw a line somewhere.”