Puck Pieterse Will Race Tour of Flanders Instead of the First 2 World Cups in Brazil

Mar 29, 2024
by Sarah Moore  
Puck Pieterse leads the overall going into this final XCC


2023 XCC and XCO World Cup overall winner Puck Pieterse will not be defending her title at the first two races in Brazil. She has chosen to focus on her road race debut in the Tour of Flanders.

The 21-year-old Fenix-Deceuninck rider will turn her focus back to the mountain bike after her early season on the road, with her eye on gold at the Paris Olympics, but she will not be in contention for the 2024 Overall World Cup.

Learn more about the race here.



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Member since Mar 30, 2011
1,330 articles

56 Comments
  • 110 2
 Maybe it's not about managers or money but she wants to race one of the most prestigious one day races in any cycling discipline?
  • 17 8
 What the Puck?
  • 7 0
 She's said that she prefers mountain biking but of course if you have talent and opportunity I think it's the smart move.
  • 9 1
 @ichabodchain: Michael Jordan is said to have loved baseball as much or more than basketball...
  • 5 0
 6th place, few seconds off win in the second group. Pretty damn impressive ride especially in bad conditions.
  • 40 4
 Tour de Ned Flanders?
  • 63 2
 Stupid, sexy Flanders
  • 18 2
 It's a mustache ride.
  • 29 0
 Well, de Ronde is a much bigger race than any mtb world cup. Especially as she races for a belgian team.
  • 1 0
 Looking forward to waching her tomorrow.
  • 14 1
 Jersey reminds me of a pack of Marlboros
  • 7 0
 Just like Ayrton Senna’s championship winning McLaren.
  • 15 2
 Road is there the money is!
  • 11 1
 I think we all love our mountain bike and the fun we get. But if for a sort of magic you could be at the start of Paris Roubaix who will say no?
  • 5 0
 So she’s missing one XCO race and one XCC race. So how does this mean she won’t be in contention for the 2024 championships?

Championships have been won before with riders having non scoring rounds.

Is there some rule that says they have to race all rounds?
  • 1 1
 She’s skipping two weekends of racing, so four XC races technically. Brazil has double weekends this year.
  • 1 0
 Totally if she wins every single other race she`ll win. Unless there is a rule...
  • 2 0
 @zepper: I don’t think there are any rules in that regard. If she can win out, she’d probably take the title. Olympic years are always weird though.
  • 3 0
 @shorttravelmag: I think world cup classification do not matter as much in an olympic year.

I could see her ride both the road and MTB olympic race.
  • 13 9
 She will face some tough opposition on the road circuit ... much more than she'd face diving back into the XCC/XCO series for 2024? Just making the top ten in Flanders will be a major accomplishment on her part, given how relatively green she is on the road. Since she was SO dominant last year on the MTB side of things, she probably figures she can skip the first two races and STILL take the overall! Shout out to Mona Mitterwallner BTW .. .for grabbing second in the Absa Cape Epic this year. That could be a harbinger for her taking her UCI MTB racing to an even higher level in 2024. And competing against Puck.
  • 29 0
 She just got 5th at Dwars door Vlaanderen behind Kopecky....
  • 10 1
 Okily dokily!
  • 5 0
 Hopefully she does Paris-Roubaix.... For any MTBers that don't know, tune in because it's the coolest roadie race of the year IMO.
  • 3 0
 "Yet our best trained, best educated, best equipped, best prepared troops refuse to fight. Matter of fact, it's safe to say that they would rather switch than fight" -Thomas Todd
  • 4 0
 ...and now I have Fight the Power stuck in my head
  • 5 1
 I think this was announced weeks ago; don't know why its taken Pinkbike so long to report it.
  • 77 0
 Mountain bikes go slower on the road
  • 4 1
 Good on her....smashes CX....smashes XC & now gonna smash Road!!
  • 3 0
 Flanders is so much bigger! Good choice, right decision
  • 1 4
 Not if you're a MTB fan from Brazil........
  • 1 0
 @Starch-Anton: almost irrelevant. Flanders rules
  • 3 1
 Do any of the top riders make it to Brazil? seems like most of them blow those races off, till it comes back to Europe
  • 1 0
 List 5 of them.
  • 3 1
 She will come into the WC XC events even faster for it.
  • 3 1
 Puck from MTV The Real World races mountain bikes?
  • 2 0
 Puck definitely raced local crits and maybe rode in a critical mass or two. Crusty messenger probably wouldn’t get down with XC
  • 1 0
 @blinglespeed: But he probably claimed he had won XC races
  • 1 0
 She just posted a video titled "Ronde van Vlaanderen 2024 | Course Recon"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDTFZLw4Rg0
  • 2 2
 XC races are two weeks after Flanders, seems like she could do both. Maybe she is planning to ride Paris Roubaix too?
  • 3 0
 Would love to see her do Paris Roubaix!
  • 1 2
 It's not the Puck you were hoping for.
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