Pieterse and Van Empel know why they probably won't shine in the Tour, while Van Anrooij has much bigger dreams

Not too long ago, we could spot their young, fearless faces winning races on cyclo-cross bikes, and over the last few winters, they grew into a feared trio in the field. One by one, they also transitioned to road bikes, and now all three suddenly find themselves at the start of the biggest women’s cycling race in the world. Puck Pieterse and Fem van Empel are debuting in the Tour de France Femmes, while Shirin van Anrooij is there for the second time. IDLProCycling.com made the trip to Rotterdam on Sunday to talk about their new adventure.

Pieterse is the first to arrive at 1:15 PM, climbing the stairs for Fenix-Deceuninck. The organization's photoshoot has just wrapped up, and there's lots of laughter going on. She shows no signs of still being hung up on the disastrous day she had at the Olympic mountain biking event two weeks earlier. A flat tire in the finale pushed her from silver to fourth place, something she needed some time to recover from. "After the Olympics, I immediately went to La Plagne to see the Tour team and then took a little vacation with the family. I realized that the Olympics are a huge event, and many people who don’t usually watch suddenly became fans of mountain biking. Thankfully, it wasn’t due to my form. I was at my best in terms of performance. It’s a shame there was no medal, but I’ve moved on, of course."

The Tour de France Femmes, with eight stages in seven days, is quite different from the intense hour-and-a-half on a mountain bike. "In mountain biking, you train very explosively, focused on VO2. You do fewer long endurance sessions, so I tried to incorporate some of that in the last two weeks," Pieterse explains. "We’ll see how it goes in the race. That form doesn’t just disappear, and if you can ride fast, it doesn’t matter much what bike you’re on. That’s still good, and the plan was to peak at the Olympics and carry that into the Tour and the Mountain Bike World Championships. The Tour might even be a bit of a training camp for that. You can’t really train for a week of the Tour de France, so after the spring, the team was keen for me to ride here. Although that decision was only finalized shortly before the Olympics."

In an interview with the Tour organization, Pieterse openly dreamed of possibly winning the white young rider’s jersey, but that doesn’t seem like a realistic goal. "I actually have very few ambitions. I’m here to do my best, but this will probably be the first race where I really work in service of our two GC riders, Pauline and Yara (Rooijakkers and Kastelijn, ed.). There’s little pressure from the team, and I’m not putting any on myself either. It would be nice if I could help the team, though I’d also like to pick a stage for myself. The stage to Liège suits me best as a mountain biker, but I have no reference for the longer climbs. I know how it goes in the peloton from back in the spring, but the Alpe d’Huez... I’ve never done anything like that, and I’m not trained for it either. I’m better on four-minute climbs, then a rest, then another four minutes. In training, when I tried longer efforts, it didn’t go as well."

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Fem van Empel lowers expectations due to "unlucky season"

Two hours after Pieterse, her teammate Van Empel enters the press room. Her preparation for her Tour debut wasn’t ideal either. For the 21-year-old world cyclo-cross champion, it wasn’t due to another discipline but simply an "unlucky season." "I had all sorts of health issues, so I can’t expect much from myself here in the Tour. And that’s okay, that’s how I’m approaching it. I have a free role, so maybe that’s when good things can happen. I’m mainly here to support the team," she says, referring to the leadership of Riejanne Markus at Visma | Lease a Bike and, of course, the presence of Marianne Vos.

A hard crash in the Giro Donne also seriously affected Van Empel’s Tour preparation. "That definitely didn’t help. I had a very limited preparation. But we did the best we could, so I’m as good as I could be, and I’m satisfied with that. It’s all a bit misleading too. You can show good things in a race, but then there’s no result. I’ve just had bad luck, and I don’t want to hide behind that or refer to it anymore. It happened, and that’s part of a career."

Van Empel is quite enjoying her first full road cycling season. "The road appeals to me, and we’ll work even harder to reach a higher level," she says confidently. The fact that Pieterse and Van Anrooij are also participating, she finds "good for the sport." Despite that, she remains modest about her own prospects for this particular Tour. "If opportunities arise, I’ll try to seize them. But, for example, I haven’t really focused on long climbs during my training. So the expectation is lower, but I’m in good shape. Besides, it’s not often a grand tour takes place in your home country, so I’m super curious and really looking forward to it."

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Shirin van Anrooij has high expectations for her second Tour

As for the truly standout performances in the Tour de France Femmes, we might need to look at the third top cyclo-crosser. Van Anrooij might have a bit of an advantage, having already done the Tour once in 2022, where she immediately won the youth classification. However, while Van Anrooij often has to concede to Van Empel and/or Pieterse when it comes to cyclo-cross, she has recorded the best performances on the road among the three. Earlier this year, she partnered with Elisa Longo Borghini for Lidl-Trek in the spring, and now, with the Italian champion absent due to a crash, Van Anrooij and Gaia Realini will be leading the team. "It’s nice to be back. I have good memories of the Tour from two years ago, but I’m glad to be racing again after quite a long period without races," she says with her characteristic smile.

Van Anrooij specifically prepared for the Tour. She raced her last race in late June in Thüringen and then went to altitude training. "I spent three and a half weeks in Andorra, helped by the fact that there weren’t many races on the calendar due to the Olympics. It was a good opportunity to do a long altitude camp. I put in a lot of hours, enjoyed hiking in the mountains, and relaxed. The big difference between such a camp and training at home is that you really rest after your efforts at altitude, whereas at home, I often end up doing something else. The team had everything taken care of, with support staff and all the amenities, so it was a very relaxed preparation."

A pleasant experience for the still only 22-year-old rider, who didn’t feel very strong after an altitude camp during the Giro Donne in 2023. "It’s hard to say in terms of power, but I’ve taken a step forward compared to two years ago. I hope that will come through now in a stage race, after having already made that step in the classics. Other girls probably have no idea how well I’ll perform, but to be honest, neither do I. I rode well in last year’s Tour de l’Avenir (in fact, she won, ed.), and all my peers were at the start. I try to trust myself, and I dare to do that a bit more now. I no longer look up to others as much, which really changed after the classics. I’m also looking forward to the Liège stage on day three."

In the Tour, these factors should all culminate in something special. What that might be, Van Anrooij doesn’t dare to say. "I’m trying not to set a specific result as a goal and just want to see where I can end up. Seven days of being in good shape, feeling good on the bike, and still having good power in the final weekend. Then I have to discover where I’ll land. I’m starting a stage race as a leader for the first time, which is also mentally different. In the classics, I was always in the shadow of Elisa, so I’m curious. I also want to focus on my race and not worry too much about the fact that Fem and Puck are here too. Of course, I want to be ahead of them because they’ve been my competitors for so long. But I just had a nice chat with Puck, so that’s really cool."