🎥 Honest Puck Moonen on cycling, social media, cervical cancer and the constant wave of hate

"I always thought there would be a lot of coaching on a cycling team, but that wasn't the case. I had no idea what I was doing and had to drop out a lot. Then you hobble along a bit, and the pleasure is soon gone," Moonen describes her first years as a pro with Lotto. "I then enjoyed riding big races but wanted to work on myself. I learned a lot at all the teams where I rode; that learning curve can never be steep enough. I also have the physical talent, but my biggest enemy is myself. I'm just downright lazy."

In her first years as a pro, Moonen did not yet have to deal with an increasingly professional peloton as she would in 2024, so she was forced to do something besides cycling. "The minimum salary in the WorldTour is now €15,000, but with the last team I was cycling for, I got €250 a month. The average rider in the peloton earns €10,000 a year, so your bike is already more expensive, and you often don't even get to keep it. You often pay a deposit for that. I started life on social media because my parents couldn't even buy me a wheel. Moreover, I have a feel for it, while other top athletes can only work hard."

"My life on social media does come at the expense of my professionalism in cycling, though," she says honestly, proudly driving her Porsche. "I did everything for one year, but that didn't make me happy either. I now build everything slowly for a stable base with which I can pay for everything I do. My life is thus very accessible to everyone, which may inspire other kinds of people to take up cycling as well. The life of a real top athlete is out of reach for many, but I can be genuinely happy for girls doing well with whom I have competed."

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For an athlete who last rode for a team in 2022, one might wonder if Moonen can still be called a pro athlete. She doubts that too. "I do see myself as a top athlete, but in stages. I've had a lot of trouble; sometimes, I don't train enough. On top of that, last year, I had constant abdominal pain, which turned out to be early cervical cancer. That was removed, but I went through a lot."

Now she says she feels happy. Moonen is having a great time with former race car driver Callan O'Keeffe, although there is little room for spontaneity. "We already know he will ask me to marry him this year. We all discuss that in advance; we don't like surprises. He will tell us when he will do it, though; we like to know where we stand," she laughs. Moonen no longer lets people tell her how things should or should not be done according to people. "You don't want to know how many hate reactions I get daily. Those people just don't know me, so what should I do with that? It's often the people lying on the couch doing nothing who criticize."