At last year’s Tour de France Femmes Fenix-Deceuninck were at the forefront of the action. Their riders could be relied upon to animate the stages and their tenacity paid off with a stage win for Yara Kastelijn on stage four. This time around was no different: the team have finished the Tour with even more success in the form of a stage win and the white jersey with Puck Pieterse, as well as third place on GC with new arrival Pauliena Rooijakkers.
While it may seem like the Belgian team have burst unexpectedly onto the scene at the biggest race in the sport, its rise to the top had been steadily building since its inception in 2020.
“It’s so cool to see how the team progressed over the years,” Pieterse, who has been with the squad for her entire career to date – focusing mainly on mountain biking and cyclocross until recently – said after her stage win. “We started as a road team that was more a bunch of cyclocross riders riding together, became WorldTour [in 2023] and Yara won a stage last year which was a massive boost for the team. I think and really showed that we can be there when it matters in the biggest stage race for the women right now. To show two years in a row that we can be there it’s of course really cool and I think it only sets up for upcoming years and what’s to come.”
“Two years ago we were a very small team,” said directeur sportif Michel Cornelisse commented after Rooijakkers took an impressive second place on the final stage to Alpe d'Huez. “Last year we won already a stage with Yara Kastelijn and almost the mountain jersey. But this year I think we were one of the stronger teams in the Tour de France Femmes and then we can only be proud of it. We win a stage and the white jersey, with Puck, and almost the Tour de France with Pauliena.”
The team’s success lies partly in their commitment to nurturing talent such as Pieterse, but also in their attention to detail elsewhere: “This team really is professional, we went to altitude camp together and also with the food and all the little things we work on. We have our own mattress with us and all the little things we work on,” said Rooijakkers after stage eight. “There’s no separation with men's and women's teams so it's equal and we take things from each other. With the coaches that makes a big difference and also the belief that I get from this team helps a lot.”
Going into the final stage the team were in a position that gave them two cards to play with between the unknown quantity of Pieterse – clearly a huge talent but a rider who had never raced on a climb like Alpe d’Huez – who sat second overall and a proven climber in Rooijakkers who was seventh at a minute and 13 seconds back.
After the Col du Glandon it was clear that Pieterse, for whom the white jersey was all but secured, was not able to match the pace of the GC favourites. Meanwhile, Rooijakkers was the only rider able to follow the decisive attack of Demi Vollering, a move that briefly put her in the virtual race lead and would propel her into third overall by the end of the stage.
“It's really nice racing with her,” said Pieterse on her teammate. “She's really motivated me on the Glandon to stay in the wheel for a bit longer and to keep pushing. And just to see how strong she is in those kinds of conditions, it's crazy and I hope I can push those watts in the future as well.”
Indeed, while this race has been a huge success for the team it has only galvanised them to look forward to bigger thing in the future.
“I think this week showed that there's really something possible,” said Pieterse. “Maybe in the future when I'm a bit older, I look forward to that. I don't know how things will plan out, but we will just see, and I just let it be how it is. Maybe I stay on the mountain bike for a few more years. Maybe I come back next year already for the Tour. I don't know.”
Asked if she sees a yellow jersey in her future Pieterse replied: “For sure. You need to dream big.”
For Rooijakkers, the brutal final stage has shown her exactly what she needs to improve going into next year’s race: “I have some things to work on but for sure the long climb suits me well and we worked with team with that but I still need to get more confidence in little things and we will work on that with the team,” she said.
Cornelisse, too, is looking forward to more from the team in the future and has every right to expect their upward trajectory to continue.
“This week for us was very good with the stage win, the white jersey and the podium in the overall. I'm a very proud sport director, because I think it was also the whole team who was very strong the whole tour,” he said.
“We will think already about next year. And sometimes you must dream big and we are going to do that.”
