Puck Pieterse will start from the cross of Benidorm next week, again in her ‘normal’ Fenix-Premier Tech outfit instead of the red-white-blue. The rider finished second at the Cyclo-Cross National Championships in Huijbergen on Sunday, but afterwards she entered into discussions with, among others, In the Leader’s jersey especially concerned about her physical condition.
Pieterse explains what happened. ‘When you came out of the forest you went under the stairs for the first time. At a bend to the meadow I slipped and did some sort of somersault. “I’ve never been able to do a front lip before, but now I fell over,” sighed the lady who is also not averse to a jump on her snowboard.
Was it due to the changed circumstances in Huijbergen, which Lucinda Brand also had problems with, for example? “The grip may have changed a bit, but that was already the case during my reconnaissance on Saturday. It’s thawing a bit,” Pieterse doesn’t immediately look at it after the cyclo-cross National Championships.
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She still has to discover what exactly is wrong. ‘I still have to measure the damage. In racing you ride on adrenaline, but I didn’t fall well. At least, that’s what I think,” says Pieterse. ‘I’m lucky that I don’t fly into the fences or fall on my shoulder, but flat on my back. I immediately felt that it wasn’t quite right.’
It is not yet clear whether this will prove to be a problem in the coming weeks. ‘We’ll just have to wait and see. I’ll have it checked out and hopefully I won’t be left with any lasting problems,” said Pieterse, who was happy that she could at least finish the National Championships and finish second. ‘A title is never lost. A lot can happen, but I didn’t get any closer,” says Pieterse, who was the first to congratulate winner Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado afterwards.
