Puck Pieterse took a brace of 2022-2023 World Cup triumphs in Sunday’s seventh round in Hulst, the Netherlands. It looked like it was going to be a ding-dong battle between Pieterse and series leader Fem van Empel, but a mechanical on the middle of five laps took van Empel out of the picture. Lone Canadian Sidney McGill came 21st.
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Having won the first four rounds, van Empel still led Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado by 90 points. Both Shirin van Anrooij and Puck Pieterse had also won rounds. Last year Lucinda Brand won in Hulst; she is still getting back to peak form after an early season hand injury.
Sidney McGill was the sole North American.
The field headed out into chilly, windy, rainy weather to assail a muddy 3-km course with flyovers, steps, two shouldered-bike clambers, barriers and a trip through a windmill. Pieterse claimed the holeshot on Lap 1, Sanne Cant having a good start in Position 4. Puck led van Empel at the front with Alvarado chasing and van Anrooij in Position 4. There was chaos behind with wild crashes. A mistake saw van Empel lose contact before the line. McGill was 18th.
Puck took six seconds into Lap 2. The gaps after that were considerable, but van Anrooij found Alvarado to pitch a podium battle. Both Pieterse and van Empel snatched new machines, and the leader maintained her gap at the line. McGill had only lost one place.
On Lap 3 of 5 Alvarado and van Anrooij carried on their scrap a minute behind van Empel. Van Empel made the junction. However, a fall messed up van Empel’s derailleur far from the pits–Pieterse would describe the bike as “f****d” in a post-race interview–and she lost a chunk of time. Pieterse was free to fly as van Empel’s difficulties came on in battalions. McGill was 20th.
The penultimate lap saw van Empel defending her second place from van Anrooij, who had left Alvarado behind. Pieterse went down in the same spot that messed up van Empel, but her machine was sound. Forty-four seconds seperated Puck and Fem when they heard the bell.
Once more Pieterse crashed in that same treacherous spot on the bell lap. Brand began to reel in Alvarado for the fourth spot, but couldn’t overtake her. Pieterse is now in second place in the series, 85 points in arrears of van Empel.
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