Puck Pieterse ended a short-track race she had begun near the back of the field with a win. On 25 May 2026, at the opening round of the mountain bike short-track World Cup in Nové Město na Moravě, the Dutch rider crossed the line first in the women's XCC. It was her first mountain bike race of the season, a return after months spent on the road. She won on the day she came back.
How it was decided
Pieterse did not line up on the front row, so the early laps were spent moving forward. Alessandra Keller and Jolanda Neff set the pace at the front while Pieterse threaded her way up through the pack, lap by lap, on the fast, exposed circuit the sport calls the cathedral. Around halfway she reached the front and took the lead. The closing laps turned dramatic, with a crash removing Keller, one of the favourites, from contention. Pieterse held her position and left the decision to the sprint.
The finish was tight in time but clear in outcome. She recorded 21:37, with Laura Stigger and Nicole Koller given the same time behind her, and Evie Richards a second back in fourth. A cluster of riders arrived together; Pieterse settled it in the drag to the line. For a rider who had spent the winter and spring reading road finishes rather than mountain bike ones, the acceleration held.
A return, on her trajectory
The context sharpens the result. Pieterse had committed to a road programme with Fenix-Deceuninck and had stepped away from mountain biking for a stretch, only to announce she would set the road aside and travel to the Czech Republic. Most of the peloton was still deep in the road calendar when the off-road season opened. She arrived without racing rhythm on the discipline and left with the win, a reminder of the breadth she carries between the two worlds.
It fits a career built on refusing to choose. Pieterse has been among the most complete riders of her generation, moving between cyclocross, cross-country and the road, and winning across each. This performance did not announce a new rider so much as confirm an established one returning to familiar ground. The margins were small. The manner was not.
Nové Město asked her to do the work before it let her win. She did the work, then won the sprint.
Puck Pieterse came back to the mountain, and the mountain remembered her.
