Puck Pieterse became Dutch cyclo-cross champion for the first time on Sunday. The twenty-year-old Alpecin-Deceuninck rider stayed ahead of teammate Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado and European champion Fem van Empel on the very tough course of Zaltbommel in Gelderland.
Pieterse, Alvarado and Van Empel immediately drove away from the rest on the course, which was very muddy due to the rain of the last few days. The route was changed at the last minute to make it less difficult.
Halfway through the race, Pieterse distanced herself from her competitors. She made a small gap and steadily extended her lead. After more than 51 minutes she crossed the finish line solo. Alvarado had meanwhile distanced himself from Van Empel and finished second at 26 seconds.
Defending champion Marianne Vos had a lot of trouble with the mud and had to drop out quickly. The veteran eventually finished tenth.
The men will start at 3 p.m. Six-time national champion Mathieu van der Poel skips the Dutch Championship.
:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/K3EFHOC7QNCRDCOGI3ZJZF6Y2A.png)
:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/PBWOKJQJ55AZHEZXLZSYBMIPXU.png)
