Puck Pieterse's Canyon Inflite Rainbow Edition

Puck Pieterse debuted a special design of her Canyon Inflite at the CX World Cup in Antwerp last weekend. The Dutch rider raced on a bike splashed with rainbow colours to commemorate the U23 World Championship she won earlier this year.

Puck Pieterse, a young multi-disciplinary talent

Pieterse's talent has made her, at the age of 20, one of the best cyclo-cross riders in the World. Of all her achievements, perhaps her greatest triumph to date is the aforementioned U23 World Championship in the speciality.

Beyond winning the rainbow jersey, the Amersfoort rider's highlights last season were her six podium finishes in the CX World Cup, which earned her third overall and second place in the U23 European Championships.

Although it was already evident last season, it has been this season when her potential has been fully exploited. Pieterse has two CX World Cup victories this season, placing her second overall behind Van Empel, and has reached the podium in the other four CX World Cup races she has competed in.

On the other hand, in November she won the U23 European Championships in Namur and in October she won the GP Oisterwijk.

Puck Pieterse's customised Canyon Inflite CF SLX

The Canyon Inflite CF SLX is one of the most successful bikes in cyclo-cross recently. Pieterse raced the CX World Cup in Antwerp on an Inflite decorated with a special design: the rainbow colours -a clear reference to his U23 World Championship- were splashed all over the bike.

It is easy to assume that Pieterse will have broadly retained the components she rode when she won the U23 World Championship earlier this year. If so, she is riding a full Shimano GRX groupset (excluding crankset), while in this rainbow design both wheels and hydraulic disc brakes are Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 2x.

The top tube has the peculiarity that it is not completely straight, but forms an angle -more or less at the vertical of the bottom bracket shell- before it joins the seat tube.

An ingenious invention that makes it more comfortable to carry the bike on your shoulder and also has the advantage of exposing the seat post for greater flexibility at the rear end, according to Canyon.

It is also more than likely that Pieterse's Inflite shares many elements with Van der Poel's Inflite. If so, the Dutchwoman's frame weighs just 940 grams and is fitted with the German brand's CP10 handlebar. It is worth noting that Pieterse used the CP18 handlebars on the bike with which she won the rainbow jersey. In the same race she used a Canyon SP0042 VCLS CF seatpost and a Selle Italia X1 X-Cross Flow saddle.

On the other hand, Van der Poel uses 140mm brakes, Shimano XTR MTB pedals and Shimano XC902 shoes -although Pieterse's 55 kilos and 1.70m height will make them several sizes smaller- with Ultread XC rubber soles, also from Shimano.

As in so many other cases, Pieterse's tyres are 700x33 mm Dugast tubulars.