Puck Pieterse proves crucial for Demi Vollering and drops a fun anecdote about Wiebes at the European Championships

Over the past two weekends, Puck Pieterse has proven—both literally and figuratively—that she’s worth her weight in gold. In Slovenia, the Dutch rider repeated what she had done a week earlier in Canada: serving as the perfect launch pad for Demi Vollering. After the race, she shared her story with CyclingProNet.

From the start of the race, it was all orange, no matter what. “There was a Dutch rider at the front almost the entire day. Lorena Wiebes and all the other girls did a great job, and we kept the pace tight,” said Pieterse.

"Especially when the breakaway group pulled away, we kept the gap at around two minutes. At one point, someone asked me if Lorena was still in the lead, because she’d been there for sixty kilometers. She must have had a good Zone 2 workout," she laughs.

Next, on the steepest climb of the day , it was up to Pieterse to set Vollering off. She did so with gusto. “When Demi attacked, I looked around and saw that only Kasia (Niewiadoma, ed.) was still with her, so I jumped onto her wheel. I was hoping we could maintain a gap so that the two of us could finish behind Demi.”

That didn't work out, because a small chasing group managed to catch up. "Marlen was so strong—she just flew by. Actually, that worked out well for me, because then I really didn't have to do anything else and could focus entirely on the sprint."

And so it came to pass, as Pieterse— with a striking victory gesture (read more about it here) —took home the silver with a golden edge. “Those two weeks with the Dutch team were so much fun; the vibe was great. To top it off with a one-two finish is, of course, super cool. When you work that hard for each other, it always pays off,” she concludes proudly.