Déjà Vu! Puck Pieterse used her superior technical skills once again to slip away from the competition at the UCI World Cup Round #7 event in Hulst, Netherlands on Sunday. At the finish Pieterse had 42 seconds on her main rival, Fem van Empel, who again finished second, and 1:47 on Shirin van Anrooij, who again placed third.
How It Happened
Lap 1 saw Pieterse take the lead from the gun and immediately open a gap of a few seconds on her two closest rivals, Alvarado and van Empel. This threat was countered by Van Empel, who took over the chase from Alvarado, and closed it down. With Alvarado falling behind now, Van Empel and Pieterse led together until van Empel made an error at the top of a run-up, allowing Pieterse to overtake her and force a gap.
As lap 2 started, Pieterse had 6 seconds on van Empel and was able to increase and hold this lead to 8 seconds going into lap 3.
As they entered lap 3, Pieterse led van Empel by 8 seconds, but again, van Empel was able to close the gap quickly and make contact with Pieterse by the time they reached the steep run-up.
Having caught Pieterse, Van Empel took the lead and was in control until a short off-camber descent caused her difficulty and she slid out. Picking herself up, van Empel straightened her bars and remounted. However, issues with her gears and derailleur prevented her from chasing and she was forced to ride in one gear until she reached the pits for a bike swap. In the meantime, Pieterse had taken advantage of the situation and was long gone. By the time van Empel hopped on her new bike and got going again, she was almost a minute behind Pieterse with little chance of winning.
With Pieterse 1 minute ahead, van Empel was too far behind to be a threat and she reconciled herself with maintaining her pace for 2nd place. To Pieterse’s credit, she rode a great technical race and handled the obstacles the best of anyone.
Race Insights
Puck Pieterse showed herself to be the more skilled rider when it came to obstacles. Her ability to jump barriers and navigate the tricky parts of a course were on display in all sections of the course. Her only weakness is her lack of raw power on flat sections. That’s where Fem van Empel really shines, in her ability to lay down power on long sections and put time into her rivals.
Van Empel’s derailleur was discovered to have gone into crash mode. Crash mode is a safety precaution that makes the derailleur inoperable until it is reset. Resetting is not so difficult and can be done easily by clicking up and down through the gears. Why van Empel wasn’t able, or aware, of how to fix it is anyone’s guess. It’s unfortunate, before her bad luck with her derailleur, Fem van Empel looked as though she was ready to go head-to-head with Pieterse. It looks like we’ll have to wait until next Sunday to see the rivalry play out.
