Rising star Puck Pieterse on Olympic pressure and comparisons with Mathieu van der Poel 

The Netherlands' conveyor belt of producing impressive women's cycling talents just continues to roll.

Next up on the line: Puck Pieterse, who's due to make her Olympic Games debut at Paris 2024 in the mountain bike event.

The 22-year-old wasn't even meant to be in Paris. She was still racing at the under-23 level in mountain biking barely two years ago, even while enjoying success at the elite level in cyclo-cross, before deciding to move up to the top level to give it a shot.

"It kind of popped into my head last year that it would be an opportunity, going to the elites, to try (to qualify)," Pieterse told Olympics.com and Discovery last month.

"We had to get in the (World Cup) top eight to get to the Games," she explained of how the Dutch selection process. So she decided to race with the elites in 2023 instead of at the U23 level – and it paid off with a win in her very first race of the year in Czechia, one of three victories she collected.

"I rode with the elite to try that, and it was just super cool that it worked out immediately in Nove Mesto.

"I look forward (to Paris) in a positive way – but with some healthy tension!"

Puck Pieterse on pressure and riding style

What makes Pieterse a special talent, even among the long line of world-class riders being produced in the Netherlands, is her versatility.

The young cyclist is already established in cyclo-cross, having dominated the women's UCI World Cup circuit since the 2022-23 season.

And a recent foray into road racing with Fenix-Deceuninck, the sister team to her Alpecin-Deceuninck cyclo-cross and mountain bike squad, has been a successful one: she has collected eight top-10 finishes over the last two seasons, including podiums at the 2023 Strade Bianche and 2024 Ronde van Drenthe and Trofeo Alfredo Binda.

All that has just raised the stakes and pressure for Pieterse to translate that form to something tangible at the Olympic Games, where she will ride in the women's cross-country mountain bike race.

"Expectations have indeed changed a bit compared to last year," she admitted. "Last year, I wasn't sure where I would be at the start of the season, because I hadn’t yet cycled with the elites.

"And now this year, I had good results last year, so I might have found [the expectations] difficult … (but) I feel like I control it better. I had a bit of the same problem in the (cyclo-)cross season actually, so I'm lucky that I've been able to deal with it a bit already."

With such a long palmarès already behind her, it's no surprise to hear that Pieterse enjoys being the star of the show at the head of the race.

"I think I race quite aggressively, so I'm not afraid to be at the front," she says. "Especially if you have good legs, that's nice.

"But it can sometimes also be difficult to make sure you don't drive yourself crazy riding in the lead or that you don’t explode, because in the end, of course, you just save energy if you stick in the wheel."

Comparisons with Mathieu van der Poel: "I'll keep to how I do it myself"

Her results across all three disciplines have drawn parallels to another Dutch superstar: men's road race world champion Mathieu van der Poel, himself a six-time cyclo-cross world champ and mountain bike European champion.

"I hear that comparison often," Pieterse let on. "I think Mathieu did a great job with that combination always, (although) he is now going a bit more road."

But Pieterse wants to make her own name instead of being called a 'female Van der Poel'. "I don't know what (the balance) will be like for me in the future, but so far I'll keep to how I do it myself."

Instead, perhaps a better comparison is another multi-discipline rider, albeit one who has focused on road and cyclo-cross, not mountain bike.

"I think that I always from the moment I watched the race on TV, Marianne already won races," Pieterse says of the three-time world and London 2012 Olympic road race champion Marianne Vos, also an eight-time cyclo-cross world champion.

"That's really mostly the person I've always looked up to."

Road, cross, and mountain bike: Pieterse weighs her future options

With those promising results on the road Women's World Tour with Fenix-Decuninck, Pieterse knows she will eventually have to decide if she wants to focus more on the road or mountain biking, with very few doing both.

The only such riders in the men's peloton to even try at the moment are Van der Poel – who eventually decided against racing in mountain bike at Paris 2024 to focus on the road race – and Great Britain's Tom Pidcock, the reigning Olympic champion in men's mountain bike who will double up in Paris.

"The road (racing) was certainly a nice trip," Pieterse acknowledged. "It was really cool to get the experience there last year; now the focus is really back on the mountain bike.

"I think I may have been able to take some tactical aspects out of the road. Certainly it makes you think during the race and I certainly think that can help in the mountain bike, but also in the cross."

But even the Dutchwoman herself isn't sure what her strong suit is, such has been the amount of success she has had in all three disciplines.

"I don't know which one suits me best, I just love doing a little bit of everything and keeping the pressure off a bit in that regard. And so far it's been going well with the combination," she said.

"I hope to keep doing it that way for as long as possible. Over the next few years, I'm not sure where it will take me. I have no idea where I’ll end up actually.

"Right now, I'm just trying to keep doing my own thing. That has worked the best so far and I think the approach we have seems to work well. I'm trying to keep it that way."