Mountain Bike Women's Elite Cross Country World Champion Puck Pieterse has made a major change to her race calendar this week as she looks to win the world title in a single season. The Dutch multi-discipline rider will forgo the last two races on the MTB World Cup circuit to take on the elite fields of the UCI Road World Championships and UCI Gravel World Championships.

The 22-year-old, who won a bronze medal in the women's elite category at the Cyclocross World Championships in February, has been on the podium at both the Ronde van Drenthe and Trofeo Alfredo Binda with her Alpecin Desseuninck road team and at the Tour de France Femmes. He has been very successful on the road, including a stage win. In the summer he concentrated on XCC and XCO racing, finishing fourth in the cross-country MTB race at the Paris Olympics.

The Dutch cycling federation KNWU gave her the option to diversify the last half of the season, and she jumped at the chance to stay in Europe for road and gravel challenges rather than go to North America to earn XCO and XCC World Cup points.

“Combining multiple disciplines can sometimes be a tough decision. After a successful Tour de France Femme, I had to choose between starting with the Road World Championships in Zurich and then the following week (in Belgium) going to the Gravel World Championships or the XCO World Cup abroad. I chose the first option because being at the World Championships is always special and something I don't want to miss,” she wrote on Instagram on Monday.

“But this year I won't be able to wear the rainbow jersey or defend my second place overall. But I'll definitely be back on the World Cup next year and giving 100%. I'm already looking forward to it.”

Although she missed the first round of the MTB World Cup in Brazil, she finished on the podium in all eight races she entered in the XCC and XCO, moving to the top of the elite women's ranking. Although she is in second place in both cross-country categories, the Dutch MTB champion will miss the remaining two MTB World Cup Circuits, September 27-19 in Lake Placid, NY and October 4-6 in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec.

The road and gravel double World Championships will be her first time competing in both events. She has proven her ability on pave and rough roads in the spring classics, but has never competed in a major gravel race. In addition to two podium finishes in one-day races in the Women's World Tour, she finished sixth in the Tour de Flanders, seventh in Ghent-Wevelgem, and 13th in Strade Bianche.

Pieterse won the Tour de France women's Avec Zwift stage 4 after missing out on a medal at the Olympics. Not only did she excel on the famous climbs of the Amstel Gold Race and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but she also sprinted ahead of Demi Volering (SD Worx-Protime) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) to take her first World Tour victory He took his first WorldTour victory.

“I can't believe it. I had really good legs the last few days, but today I had no feeling in my legs at all. To win a sprint with Demi is a dream come true. She also wore the mountains jersey for several days and won the best young rider award for the week.

KNWU has not released the full elite women's roster for the UCI Road World Championships as of September 11, but Pieterse was quick to mention that she is a first-time invitee to the Road World Championships. She will compete in the 154.1km women's road race on Saturday, September 28. The Dutch men's team was announced last Friday, with Mathieu van der Pol set to defend his road title.

Pieters is also looking to the federation to add to her off-road credentials by naming her to the final roster for the Gravel World Championships (Elite Women) in Leuven, Belgium, on Saturday, October 5.

The 22-year-old Dutch rider will very likely have to recreate a Tour stage sprint at the Gravel World Championships, where she could compete for a podium spot with reigning champion Niwi Adoma and last year's third-place finisher Volering.

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