When Puck Pieterse lines up at the start of a race, there’s a certain inevitability about what follows — she throws everything she has at it. An aspect that makes her a cult-like figure is how much she enjoys doing it. Pieterse is passionate about showing how much fun professional cycling is.
“Many girls drop out at U18 and U20, but if social media is full of clips of people having fun on the bike, then we can inspire them to continue,” Pieterse told the crowd at Rouleur Live. The Dutchwoman was on stage with Manon Lloyd and Kate Veronneau as part of a panel discussing the rise of women's sport, presented by Shimano.
“It’s important to show the outside world that it’s not all robotic. It’s not just: eat, sleep, train,” said Pieterse, who often posts videos of herself doing wheelies and having fun on her bike.
Few areas of sport have expanded as rapidly or as meaningfully as women’s cycling. From grassroots clubs to the stages of France, visibility, investment, and opportunity have all climbed steeply. As Kate Veronneau, director of women’s strategy at Zwift and one of the driving forces behind the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, points out, the numbers tell the story.
“The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift had 148 million hours viewed worldwide,” she says. “An 80% increase. We [Zwift] got into this to start a movement. It feels really good, four years on, to know that not only is it working, but we’re in for another four.”
Pieterse at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in August (Image: Tornanti.cc)
That reach feeds back into the sport’s ecosystem — growing fanbases, sponsorships, and sustainability. “It’s wonderful when you can align what feels good and what is good for the future,” Veronneau adds. “But at the end of the day, it’s also a business. When the global reach grows, it grows on Zwift as well.”
For Pieterse, this surge in attention represents a cultural shift she’s witnessing in real time. “I started in the world of pro cycling at a good time,” she says. “Before, there was just a small summary of the women’s race before the men’s race. Now, MTB races are on television, and for the younger girls, they know it’s a job. They can watch a full stage of the Tour de France.”
Former professional and Shimano ambassador Manon Lloyd nods to the same transformation. “When I first started, I was just put in with the boys,” she recalls. “I was in Mallorca recently, and there were so many groups of women cycling. It’s definitely heading in the right direction — it feels a lot more accessible than before.”
Community, both physical and digital, has been crucial to that change. Veronneau believes Zwift’s virtual world has opened cycling to riders who might never have found their way into a peloton otherwise. “We really wanted to inspire the community to get behind it,” she says. “Zwift is friends with everybody — we will work with everyone.”
And Lloyd, now a familiar voice and face across cycling media, sees how openness fuels connection. “Women are happy to talk about their menstrual cycle now,” she laughs. “That kind of honesty makes the sport feel human.”
Even for Pieterse, used to leading from the front, the support is palpable. “[At this year’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift] I was in the gruppetto for the first time,” she smiles. “I was 20 minutes down and there were still so many people cheering. I could really soak it up for the first time.”
Women’s cycling is no longer a cause that needs defending — it’s a movement that demands investing in. As Veronneau says, “We want more investors to get on board.” That call is echoed across the sport, from Shimano’s commitment to supporting authentic storytelling, to riders like Pieterse redefining what excellence looks like.
Pieterse, Lloyd and Veronneau were on stage at Rouleur Live, see more details for tickets here: Rouleur Live tickets
