#fenix deceuninck

[marcelskittels]

Puck Pieterse of Fenix-Deceuninck prior to the 3rd Tour de France Femmes 2024, Stage 5 a 152.2km stage from Bastogne to Amnéville on August 15, 2024 in Bastogne, Belgium. (Photos by Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)

[womensworldtour]

Mur de Huy, La Flèche Wallone Femmes, 2025

[marcelskittels]

PUCK PIETERSE & DEMI VOLLERING Tour de France Femmes 2024 - Stage 4 🎥 via uci_wwt / 📸 by clippin_media

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[marcelskittels]

Julie Van de Velde of Belgium and Fenix-Deceuninck & Lotte Kopecky of Belgium and Team SD Worx before the starts of the 2nd Tour de France Femmes 2023, Stage 4 a 177.1km stage from Cahors to Rodez on July 26, 2023 in Cahors, France. (Photos by Tim de Waele/Getty Images)

[marcelskittels]

Lotte Kopecky of Team SD Worx - Protime, Marianne Vos of Team Visma | Lease a Bike & Puck Pieterse of Fenix-Deceuninck prior to the 21st Ronde van Vlaanderen - Tour des Flandres 2024 - Women's Elite a 163km one day race from Oudenaarde to Oudenaarde on March 31, 2024 in Oudenaarde, Belgium. (Photo by Jasper Jacobs/Getty Images)

[womensworldtour]

First, we need to admit that we really aren't cyclocross gurus. It's always been a strange sport to us, just some men and women biking around a park with some stairs, sand, and barriers. But it's also beautiful in its accessibility, you can see huge chunks of the race as a spectator in one spot, and the races last around 45 minutes rather than a whopping 4 hours. It will never bear our greatest love, but we get it.

For those that may like to dabble in CX, it has been a fun season to watch. For example, Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado (Fenix-Deceuninck) pulled off an impressive win at Superprestige Merksplas on Sunday, was a lot of fun to watch! She held off Lucinda Brand (Baloise Trek Lions), who charged back but couldn't quite close the gap in time. Marie Schreiber (SD Worx-Protime) came in third after leading for the first 2/3 of the race.

Also, cyclocross events seem to be on YouTube more, which is make it easy to get hooked on this silly but likeable discipline.

[womensworldtour]

Full disclosure: we always cheer for the break.

Sure, the sprint teams and the GC teams usually spoil the fun, and the list of long-range attacks that don't pan out is too long to even catalogue. But we still love a good break, and take perverse satisfaction when the teams behind miscalculate and or when the riders out front cooperate well and ride so hard that the chasers can't bring them back.

But we're not sure if last Saturday's Omloop Het Nieuwsblad is what we had in mind, a day defined by negative tactics, massive group-two syndrome, and maybe some race radio issues and inaccurate time gaps. Whatever the case, the break went immediately, and got a 15-minute gap. And no one (other than maybe Ellen van Dijk of Lidl-Trek, who brought it back to 7 minutes at one point) seemed motivated to do anything about it for far too long.

The gap went out again, and though a few break riders were dropped, the surviving two riders—Lotte Claes of Arkéa-B&B Hotels and Aurela Nerlo of Winspace Orange Seal—had more than 3 minutes when they crossed the line. Kudos to both riders, and the long-range drag to the finish was a real battle between the two, with Claes winning out in the end. That expression at the line is definitely exhaustion, and maybe surprise as well. What was even going on in this race, could Claes and Nerlo even tell? Regardless, they put on a great show, and this was fun to watch.

More than four minutes behind, when the group hit the Bosborg, Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) launched her attack, and only Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) could go with her, with Niewiadoma getting dropped shortly thereafter. Vollering and Pieterse cooperated until the final sprint, which Vollering won handily, showcasing her form and the strategy that should have been enough to get her the win, if her team had rode more to bring back the break. Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) won the sprint about 10 seconds back from Vollering and Pieterse, showcasing what she could have done if her team had worked on the front. Very puzzling stuff, and I guess the Vollering-SD Worx beef is alive and well.

We do like to see under-the-radar talent sharing the podium with the big-named riders, and Vollering was all smiles with Claes and Nerlo. We also loved to see Claes' teammates celebrating with her, the team bus must have been a happy scene that evening. Kudos to Claes and Arkéa-B&B Hotels!