Puck Pieterse wants to improve the time she made at Ventoux when she was 10 years old

Puck Pieterse will return this Friday to Mont Ventoux, in the queen stage, with a double challenge. The Dutch rider from Fenix-Premier Tech recalled hours earlier that the first time she climbed the mythical pass was when she was only 10 years old, on her mountain bike, and now she hopes to improve that record while defending the polka dot jersey of the Tour de France Femmes.

Puck Pieterse remembers climbing Mont Ventoux at 10 years old on a MTB: now she wants to improve that time and conquer the mountain jersey

After the fifth stage of the Tour, Pieterse hinted at what she expected from the queen stage of the Tour: "I climbed the Ventoux when I was 10 years old, I think, on my mountain bike. I looked it up and it took me 1 hour and 58 minutes, so I hope to improve that time", she commented in statements to SBS Sport Australia.

Beyond the anecdote, the ascent to the Giant of Provence comes at a key moment for Pieterse. After several days downplaying the mountain classification, the Dutch rider acknowledged for the first time that the polka dot jersey has become a real goal as the race comes to a close.

RECOMENDADO

Puck Pieterse wins the XCC in Nové Město after a crash involving several favorites

Puck Pieterse returns to the XCO World Cup in Nove Mesto

Puck Pieterse wins a highly contested race in Hoogerheide

UAE secures Isaac del Toro until 2031

Buy now or wait? 29“ MTBs vs. the trend shift toward 32“

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot considers the Tour already lost and announces a change in strategy

This change in discourse contrasts with statements made just a few days earlier in which she insisted that the team's priority remained fighting for stage wins and that the mountain classification was a secondary objective. At that time, she stated that she was simply taking advantage of opportunities to score points when they arose.

This Friday's stage will be decisive for her aspirations. The Tour de France Femmes faces for the first time a summit finish at Mont Ventoux, which the riders will reach after overcoming three other climbs before tackling the 15.7 kilometers of final ascent at an average gradient of 8.8% from Bédoin to the summit located at 1,910 meters above sea level.

Pieterse will arrive at that ascent as the leader of the mountain classification, a position she will try to defend on a day that could definitively decide the polka dot jersey.