UCI MTB World Cup Les Gets: Puck Pieterse takes dominant win in Cross Country Olympic
Pieterse emerges as an Olympic favourite after showing in Haute Savoie

Puck Pieterse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) showcased her Olympic Cross Country form only weeks ahead of the Olympic Games in Paris with a 2:37 winning margin over Candice Lill (South Africa) at the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series in Les Gets.
Pieterse broke away from the first lap, having come second to Alessandra Keller (Thömus Maxon) in the short track race on Friday, to ride solo all the way to the finish ahead of Lill in second place and Keller in third at a margin of 3:07.
“I'm just super happy,” Pieterse said immediately following the race finish. “On Friday [at the short track event], I already felt that so good legs but maybe I didn't take the smartest tactic.
“Now I know if I have good legs, that I can do it from the start, and I just tried to go full gas from the start and luckily it worked out," she continued.
“We had a really good training camp with the team and I'm just happy to show my good form here.”
Speaking about her early attack and race tactic, she said, “I knew it was a climber course so I just tried to push every climb to my fullest and then take a bit less risks in descents.
“On the last lap I got a bit tired and made some mistakes, but luckily I had a big enough gap.
The win marks Pieterse’s fourth mountain bike win of the season, having won the CC Europe XCO, and the XCC at the World Cup in Val di Sole and Crans-Montana.
Results
Results powered by FirstCycling
Get The Leadout Newsletter
The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!
Peter Stuart has been the editor of Cyclingnews since March 2022, overseeing editorial output across all of Cyclingnews' digital touchpoints.
Before joining Cyclingnews, Peter was the digital editor of Rouleur magazine. Starting life as a freelance feature writer, with bylines in The Times and The Telegraph, he first entered cycling journalism in 2012, joining Cyclist magazine as staff writer. Peter has a background as an international rower, representing Great Britain at Under-23 level and at the Junior Rowing World Championships.
Latest on Cyclingnews
-
Gent-Wevelgem Men Live - Echelons cause early splits
The men's peloton tackles 250.3km from Ypres to Wevelgem -
Gent-Wevelgem Women - LIVE
The women's peloton tackles 168.9km from Ypres to Wevelgem -
As it happened: Explosive final stage ends with race lead changing hands at Volta a Catalunya
Peloton tackle 88.2km final in Barcelona -
'I'm very upset' - Volta a Catalunya organiser dismayed by riders' last-minute change of heart over altered stage 6 route
Volta peloton initially promised to ride two laps of altered stage, finally rode one