News June 25 ^th 2025 - 14:47

Eyes on them... II/IV

On the fourth edition of the Tour de France Femmes with Zwift, the spotlight and the cameras will mostly be focused on a handful of champions, either destined for the final podium or already familiar with it. Behind the likes of Vollering, Niewiadoma, Kopecky, Van der Breggen, and Ferrand-Prévot, a number of riders have already begun to break through, achieving results that haven’t gone unnoticed by experts or by the very rivals they’ll be battling this summer. They may not be wearing yellow this year, but the official Tour website invites you to discover four women on their way up, each at a different stage of their rise, and each with the potential to shine briefly or lastingly somewhere between Brittany and the Alps. French rider Dilyxine Miermont, Dutch star Puck Pieterse, Mauritian talent Kim Le Court, and New Zealand’s Ally Wollaston have no intention of just making up the numbers.

Puck Pieterse: "I come out of the Classics stronger”

Puck Pieterse has, so far, competed in only one stage race, and what a first it was! Used to shining on off-road tracks and circuits, the young Dutch star discovered the cumulative effort of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2024. Even those familiar with her cyclo-cross and mountain bike feats could only be impressed with her performance against the biggest names of road cycling, claiming victory in Liège (stage 4) and dominating the best young rider standings to step on the final podium with the white jersey. And that was with little to no specific preparation, as Pieterse was focusing on the Paris Olympic Games… Inspired by Marianne Vos, guided by Annemiek van Vleuten, the Oranje storm had a busier spring on the road this year, building up experience in the peloton and triumphing at La Flèche Wallonne Femmes ahead of Demi Vollering. Her summer is now punctuated with altitude training and course recons in the Alps as she gears up to fulfil her Tour dreams. “I hope to win the yellow jersey in the future”, she says after spending most of last year’s race in second position in the overall standings.

Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck)
Born on 13 May, 2002, in Amersfoort (the Netherlands)

Team:

Since 2020: Fenix-Deceuninck

Principaux résultats :

2023: 2nd of the cyclo-cross Worlds
2024: U23 Road World Champion / MTB cross-country World Champion / 3rd of the cyclo-cross Worlds
2025: Winner of the La Flèche Wallonne Femmes / 2nd of Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes / 3rd of the cyclo-cross Worlds

Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift results:

2024 : 11th, best young rider, winner of stage 4

Fun fact:

A most versatile star with successes on all terrain, Puck Pieterse is also a social media sensation who attracts a wide and varied audience intrigued by her antics as she shares insights into her racing life, especially during muddy recons of cyclo-cross and MTB circuits. The commentary is in dutch but the laughter is universal.

What did you learn about yourself in the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2025?
That I really get tired after some days of racing!

How did that fatigue build up along the week? You still managed to win a stage and you were 2nd in the overall standings at the start of the final stage…
Naturally I had bad days and good days on the bike. On the Liege stage, I definitely had super good legs. But of course, you feel it the days after. I mainly found out that the longer efforts, sustained efforts on the climbs, are quite hard if you don't train on that. You are already tired and then you have to ride up Glandon and Alpe d’Huez… It's not that easy anymore!

How do you prepare for a challenge like the Tour?
This year, I will have trained on longer efforts on a bike. Usually, I do shorter efforts because on the mountain bike, all the climbs are maximum four minutes. And the race is only one and a half hours. Last year, I did not have time to train specifically for the challenges of the Tour because I was training for the mountain bike at the Olympics. So all my focus went to that. And then, it was only two weeks until the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. So there was not much time to really train on the longer efforts, it was just seeing what I could already do with the basis I had.

How have you changed your preparation for 2025?
Mountain bike training is actually pretty combinable with spring classics because the climbs there are also not so long. The Tour is definitely different. I started last week doing some more specific work on the longer efforts, before another mountain bike race in Val di Sole, in Italy [she won on Sunday her 2nd UCI MTB World Cup of the season]. Then I'll have a rest week to be fresh for the build-up of the Tour, with three weeks of altitude, combined with the mountain bike race in Andora [9-13 July].

"I won't try to actively lose time to get in a break"

You did more Classics this spring than in the years before. How did you feel with this amount of racing on the road?
It was nice. I'm used to racing every weekend from cyclo-cross. It was not really difficult to get focused before every race. It was a lot, of course, but it was also only two months. I have a feeling that you only come out stronger because these races are so good trainings as well. You train your endurance, you train your sprints, you train everything. So I'm just super happy. And of course, later in the year, it will help me during the Tour that I have done those races and built endurance. Also, the more you race, the more race situations you get to know, and the easier you can maybe read how a race is unfolding.

Are you a stronger rider now?
I think so, yes!

What ambitions can you have in the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift 2025 if you are even stronger than last year?
Well, we have not really had a chat about it with the team, actually, so I don't know exactly what my role will be. Last year proved that I can win a stage. I think for this year, it will be mainly stage-focused as well. But I won't try to actively lose time to get in a break the next day or something. I'll just keep riding, I think, with the GC contender to see where I end up. But I don't think GC is a goal for this year already. It's just about seeing where I end up and seeing where we can build from that for the next few years. Luckily, we have Pauliena [Rooijakkers], who got third last year. It would just be super cool to maybe be able to follow longer on the climbing stages and help her towards maybe another podium or even better.

You also said last year after the Tour that you need to dream big. What do you dream of?
We have to see this year how the preparation on the longer climbs will work out in the race and afterwards decide if a GC would be an option. But of course, now, after how last year went, I hope to win the yellow jersey in the future.

How would you describe your strengths as a rider?
I think for now, I’m good in four-minute effort. And maybe in a smaller group, not a bunch sprint, I can sprint if I play my cards right, so I can count on that.

And what about your technical skills? How much does that help you in a road race?
It helps you to stay more safe, actually. The bunch is so hectic and so many sudden movements can be made by others. On the road, if they crash in front of you, sometimes you cannot avoid crashing as well. You don't have it into your own hands. But when you're maybe a bit more flexible on the bike, it will help you maybe just jump over a small trottoir [curb] or get out of tricky situations more easily. I think it really benefits me like that. Of course, everybody will have crashes, but it's nice to stay out of them as much as possible.

The other thing that is often said about you is that you are fierce, you never give up. What's your mentality on a bike?
I think it's normal as an athlete that you don't give up. So it's just part of the game. And once people start to suffer, either you will crack or you will succeed. And it's just how you go on with the pain everybody feels in their legs, who has maybe the higher pain tolerance. When you have good legs and you feel fresh, it's nice. You can push harder. But of course, a lot of riders are strong. So in the race, especially on the road, the tactics also come into play, maybe show to the others that you feel better than you do or worse than you do to gain an advantage.

"It would be nice to have a career that just comes close to Marianne Vos'"

You work with Annemiek van Vleuten, who was also known to be very strong mentally and a great climber. Does it give you some confidence to work with her on these elements?
Yeah, for sure. I'm now with the Tour squad in La Plagne to do some recons for the Tour and she traveled here as well yesterday, so we can have a good chat about tactics for the Tour.

Have you done Col de la Madeleine?
Yes, yesterday.

What can you say about this climb?
The side we do in the Tour is super steep, especially at the beginning. After 8 kilometres, it was closed. I think they still have road works. But the first 8k, they were never ending and so steep. Then we had to ride back down and we did the normal side of the Madeleine. And it rolled so much better because it was just less steep. So in the Tour, that one will really, really get into the body. There's just no way of recovering on that climb. Also, staying in the wheel there, you won't gain much of an advantage because it's so steep that the wind resistance will be less prominent.

You've said that Marianne Vos was a big inspiration for you. What do you think of everything she's been able to do at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift?
Yes, she was and still is a big inspiration to me, of course. If you see how much she already won, but also how much she still keeps winning and showing up when it matters, for the big moments, for example, at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, being able to wear that yellow jersey… Those are the moments that count. Just to wear it is already such a big thing. It's crazy and it only shows how resilient she is, also coming back after a few injuries. I don't know how she does it, but it would be nice to have a career that just maybe comes close to hers.

Would you still be racing in 15 years then, to match her longevity?
I have no idea [laughs]. She became a world champ when I was barely born. So that shows how long the timeline is.

Eyes on them... II/IV

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