It took six races for Puck Pieterse to score her first win of the season at Tuesday’s sixth night race round of the 2025-2026 Superprestige series in Diegem, Belgium. Pieterse has won in Diegem thrice. Aniek van Alphen went from sharing the series lead with another rider one point behind to topping the table by nine points. Canadians Rafaelle Carrier was 16th and Nico Knoll 18th.
Preliminaries
Amandine Fouquenet earned a big win and Carrier scored a top 10 in the last round. Lucinda Brand skipping a second consecutive round underscored her series priorities. Inge van der Heijden and Aniek van Alphen were tied at the top of the classification, with absent Fouquenet a point behind. Let’s go!
Carrier, Elly Moore, Dorothee Perron, Knoll, Katja Verkerk, Clare Hauber and Claire MacKinnon made up a large Canadian contingent.
Italian national champion Lucia Bramati grabbed the hole shot over Marie Schreiber (Luxembourg/SD Worx-ProTime). Van der Heijden crashed in the first bend and looked distressed, but she carried on. Pieterse flew free with Schreiber. Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado chased. The leading duo finished the first lap in 7:35, Alvarado five seconds later.
Pieterse wanted to dump her company on Lap 2 of 6, but instead she found herself part of a trio. Van Alphen was the clinosest chase group with Hungarian Kata Blanka Vas (SD Worx-ProTime) and Jolanda Neff. Would Pieterse and Alvarado play as Fenix-Deceuninck teammates? Nope. Using the sand, Puck spurted away again. The Dutch champion forced a 11-second gap back to Schreiber and Alvarado.
In Position 6, van Alphen didn’t have anyone ahead of her who could threaten the series lead. On Lap 3, Schreiber left Alvarado behind and Vas put herself into the podium conversation. At the midpoint of the contest, ten seconds seperated Pieterse from Schreiber.
On Lap 4, Vas was encouraged by being only 13 seconds in arrears of the final podium spot. Pieterse added five seconds to her lead. In fact, all four principals added time to their gaps.
Pieterse grabbed a fresh bike at the start of the penultimate lap, presumably because of a mechanical, allowing Schreiber to close in dramatically. A poor Pieterse sand pit drew them closer.
When she heard the bell, Pieterse had 11 seconds again….
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