She didn’t win any of the first 10 rounds of the 2025-2026 UCI Cyclocross World Cup, but at Sunday’s final round in Hoogerheide, the Netherlands, Puck Pieterse completed a dream weekend, adding Hoogerheide to Saturday’s Maasmechelen victory. It was the Dutch rider’s third triumph of the season. Sidney McGill was top Canadian in 24th.
Early in the day Canadian Alexa Haviland was 16th and Claire Mackinnon 39th inn the Junior women’s race.
Preliminaries
Lucinda Brand may have come 10th on Saturday’s penultimate round, but she was the 2025-2026 titlist for the fourth time and second consecutive season. Brand was a whopping 111 points ahead of Flamanville winner Aniek van Alphen. Neither Brand nor Maasmechelen runner-up Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado raced Hoogerheide.
The Canadian contingent was Sidney McGill, Nico Knoll, Rafaelle Carrier, Maghalie Rochette and Dorothee Perron.
Amandine Fouquenet, the revelation of the season, grabbed an early lead after the start. Inge van der Heijden, who seemed sharper in the early season, took over to propel along the long string. Pieterse kept wise to her action. Carrier had to pit, which made her disappear from the top 20. Shirin van Anrooij, Baloise Lions’ big hope of the day, led up the Stairway to Heaven alongside Pieterse. At the end of the first circuit, Carrier was 25th and McGill 26th.
The string stayed untrimmed at the beginning of Lap 2. The woman in burnt orange, Pieterse, acted as the train’s locomotive. Now that her lungs have improved, Sara Casasola had the wind to take her turn out front. Carrier crashed on the planks.
On Lap 3 of 7 the group at the business end of the race continued to be large and the Italian national champion continued to pull. Fouquenet and Pieterse replaced her. Zoe Backstedt and Kata Blanka Vas stayed in their back pockets. McGill was 24th.
Eight seconds separated first from 18th on Lap 4. Pieterse tried to press the issue on the long climb but it was Fouquenet taking the outside line to dive inside. McGill was 27th, Carrier 31st
Pieterse was relentless and finally on Lap 5 the string snapped–she took Fouquenet and Casasola with her. Slovakian Viktoria Chladonova led the chasers and eventually she came over with Backstedt to create a quintet. Van Anrooij and Marion Norbert Riberolle wanted in on…
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