Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Premier Tech) will begin her 2026 spring Classics campaign at Strade Bianche on March 7, with a programme of eight or nine one-day races that includes a provisional debut at Paris-Roubaix Femmes on April 12.
The team confirmed the schedule this week, revealing a later seasonal start than 2025. Pieterse omitted the Belgian Opening Weekend races, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Omloop van het Hageland, which she contested last year. Instead, the 23-year-old will open with an Italian block, Strade Bianche followed by the Trofeo Oro in Euro, where she finished second in 2025, and Milano-Sanremo.
From there the programme moves through the Flemish cobbled races, Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Tour of Flanders, before the tentative Roubaix start. Pieterse's participation in the Hell of the North remains subject to final confirmation closer to the race.
The schedule then builds towards the Ardennes triple of Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where Pieterse performed most strongly in 2025. She won La Flèche Wallonne and will defend that title, while also returning to Amstel Gold Race (third in 2025) and Liège-Bastogne-Liège (second).
Pieterse's 2026 Spring Classics programme
Eight confirmed starts plus a provisional Paris-Roubaix debut
Date | Race | Status |
|---|---|---|
| March 7 | ||
| March 8 | ||
| March 21 | ||
| April 1 | ||
| April 5 | ||
| April 12 | ||
| April 19 | ||
| April 22 | ||
| April 26 |
The reduced programme, down from ten one-day starts in 2025, The reduced programme, down from ten one-day starts in 2025, reflects a focus on specific targets. Last season she never finished outside the top ten across eleven consecutive one-day starts.
Pieterse's cross campaign concluded at the World Championships in Hulst in early February, giving her roughly five weeks before Strade Bianche.
Strade will be the first test of whether a shorter runway from cyclocross and a leaner calendar can sharpen the Ardennes peak that defined her 2025 spring. Roubaix remains the open question, but given her cyclocross form and one-day performances, if she chooses to race she would enter as a major favourite.
Cover image credit: Simon Wilkinson/SWpix.com
