The story of the day in the elite women's race at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships was Lucinda Brand capping off her dominant campaign with another world title, heading a home Dutch podium sweep.
Brand led Ceylin Del Carmen Alvarado by 27 seconds at the line in Hulst, while Puck Pieterse rounded out the podium, 51 seconds down, having made her way back from a near-race-ruining crash.
For the 23-year-old, it's the third bronze medal in a row at the Worlds, having scored a silver on her elite debut back in 2023. It was a positive result following the fall, especially as she found herself back in a large group of chasers afterwards.
"I crashed quite a bit, quite out of my head. And I knew Lucinda and Ceylin were so strong they wouldn't wait for me, unfortunately," Pieterse said in the post-race press conference.
"Afterwards, I had to change bikes, and the group behind me came back, so then I knew that you're not closing that gap of 30 seconds anymore.
"Of course, you go down with high risk and high speed. I just lost my front wheel and crashed," she added, explaining her spill on a downhill section of the course.
After finding herself back in the chasing group, Pieterse realised that the chances of competing with her compatriots out front had slipped away.
The focus turned to salvaging a bronze medal, even if she found herself stuck as low as eighth or ninth as she battled for position in the group.
"It was actually quite a big group, all with different nationalities, which was quite cool. It was constantly fighting for your position, and when I got back in the group, I was immediately pushed towards the back," she said.
"I was suddenly riding in the eighth or ninth position, and they were riding really fast. The pressure was always on. On the start-finish straight, you could change positions a bit and at one point, I think there was also a crash within the group, so that split up the group a bit, and then it was just full gas to the finish."
For Pieterse, the medal represents a positive conclusion to her cyclo-cross season, a campaign which had only seen her miss the podium three times in 12 races to date. Along the way, there have been wins at the Superprestige Diegem, plus the World Cup rounds in Maasmechelen and Hoogerheide last week.
It's been a good way to round out winter, especially given her hardships towards the end of 2025, she noted.
"I think for me, the summer season, it started really good, actually. I've never ridden this good in the spring Classics, and also on the mountain bike, I had some perfect weekends, so I cannot complain," Pieterse said.
"But by the end of the mountain bike season, I was for sure not feeling my best, which meant it was quite hard to keep motivated and training if the body doesn't want to really. At the Mountain Bike World Championships, I was not even in contention for a medal.
"So, I'm just happy that throughout the 'cross season I could find some confidence back. That resulted as well in the two World Cup wins and a medal now again at the elite Worlds, which I think I can be really proud of."
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