Interview | Pieterse and Terpstra make Van Empel's Olympic Mountain Biking dream difficult: "Need to do better than second place, which means winning"

While it is still uncertain whether there will be even one male Dutch rider present at the 2024 Olympic Games in mountain biking, women's mountain biking is experiencing its heyday. A year before the Games, it is almost certain that the Netherlands has secured the maximum of two spots, and there appear to be one or two more women who are good enough to qualify. In an interview with IDLProCycling.com, Dutch national coach Gerben de Knegt discussed the Olympic trajectory, the stress of having to make choices and his frustration with a new format.

De Knegt's voice immediately becomes more enthusiastic when it comes to the women, and that is logical. Just last weekend, top talent Puck Pieterse won her second World Cup race of the season in Leogang. Earlier this year, she was also the strongest competitor in Nove Mesto, competing against the mountain biking elite. In Lenzerheide, she finished fourth. Her compatriot Anne Terpstra also performed admirably in the first three World Cup races of the year. She placed sixth in Nove Mesto, second in Lenzerheide, and eighth in Leogang last weekend.

Pieterse (21) and Terpstra (32) are the main protagonists in this story, the two women who are currently in pole position to secure the two Olympic spots in Paris. "We already knew that Anne Terpstra was capable of this, but she is no longer in her early twenties, so she has to prove herself every time. She has become a mature top athlete and she shows it when it matters. She is very consistent. With Puck, we had hoped that she would meet our qualification criteria, but winning two World Cups and finishing in the top five once is beyond expectations. She is only going to get better," De Knegt expresses with enthusiasm.

Text continues below the post.

Netherlands would have liked to bring three ladies to the Olympics

All brilliant, but those who perform well always want more. De Knegt is disappointed that in 2024 he is only allowed to bring two women to the Olympics. "The previous format for the Olympic Games was different, the top two countries in the ranking were allowed to send three ladies, but that's not the case anymore. I'm disappointed about that because, with the current group of athletes, we could definitely be among the top two countries and compete for three spots. But now it's limited to two."

De Knegt is referring to Fem van Empel (20) and Anne Tauber (28). The duo hasn't quite managed to achieve what Pieterse and Terpstra have accomplished this year, but according to De Knegt, Van Empel in particular is capable of more. "People sometimes forget that. Fem doesn't have a strong mountain biking background. I convinced her to start mountain biking two or three years ago, and at that point, there was still a lot of work to be done. She had a crash in Lenzerheide. Otherwise, she would have easily made it to the top ten there, even though she's still considered a U23 rider. And then we also have Anne Tauber, someone who has the potential to finish in the top eight."

So far, they haven't delivered on that yet. Van Empel finished seventeenth in Nove Mesto, sixteenth in Lenzerheide, and she did not finish in Leogang last Sunday. Tauber's best performance was a fourteenth place in Leogang. In Nove Mesto and Lenzerheide, she finished twentieth on both occasions.

Text continues below the post.

Van Empel must win or finish second for Olympics

De Knegt laughs. Because even though we're talking about four potential Olympians, there are currently only two who qualify. "For the women, it's a kind of three-step process, and we've already taken the first step. I can confidently say that we're aiming for two spots. Step two is: who meets the requirements? At the moment, I don't have a problem on that front because only two women have met the qualification requirement set by the KNWU. Puck and Anne aimed to fulfill the requirement (finishing at least in the top eight in a World Cup of their choice, ed.) in Nove Mesto, and both of them did. The others have had their moments as well, but they haven't met the requirement yet."

And so there is work to be done for Van Empel if she wants to go to Paris in 2024. "Once multiple women meet the requirement, we also have an internal document that basically states that those with the best results in a World Cup race and/or the World Championships will be chosen. I can deviate from that based on various arguments, but at the moment it's very simple: if Fem van Empel and Anne Tauber want to go to the Olympics, they will have to outperform Anne Terpstra's second-place finish. That means only a victory will do, which is quite a challenge. And if two women achieve their best performance with a second place, we will look at the last two results in the World Cup rankings prior to closing, based on a kind of form preservation heading into the Olympics."

In short, there is still a chance that Van Empel will challenge her compatriots. However, there is another obstacle looming in that respect: Jumbo-Visma. Van Empel has been riding for the Dutch team this year, and she wants to explore her skills as a road cyclist. "With Fem, we will assess the situation after the European Championships (on June 25 in Krakow, Poland, ed.). Is it still realistic for her to meet the requirement, or will she focus on the road? I know she enjoys mountain biking a lot, so my feeling is that she will continue and participate in one or two more World Cup races towards the World Championships. After that, she will normally shift her focus back to cyclocross. Fem can do a good combination between MTB, road and cyclocross. She wants to become a road cyclist, but I wonder if she really enjoys it as much as everyone says."

Bram van der Ploeg (Twitter: @BvdPloegg)