Ellen van Dijk

Nick Name

: The Animal

Born

:11 Feb,1987

Age

:32 years, 6 months

Location

:Harmelen, Utrecht, Netherlands

Website

: http://www.ellenvandijk.nl/

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About Ellen van Dijk

Eleonora Maria "Ellen" van Dijk is a Dutch professional road racing cyclist riding for Boels Dolmans Cycling Team. Besides road cycling she was also a track cyclist until 2012. Van Dijk is known as a time trial specialist and is four times world champion. She won her first world title on the track in the scratch race in 2008. She became Road World Champion in 2012 and 2013 in the team time trial and in 2013 also in the individual time trial. In 2015 she won the time trial at the first European Games and the silver medal in the team time trial at the world championships.

Career Highlights:

Ellen van Dijk (Boels Dolmans) won the 11th edition of the women’s Tour of Flanders on Sunday.
Van Dijk soloed to victory in the 139.6km race, the third round of the UCI women’s World Cup, ahead of teammate and series leader Elizabeth Armitstead and Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS).
“It was our team tactics played out to perfection. I would go first and we would have Lizzie (Armitstead) behind me. It was from the book,” said van Dijk.
Added Armitstead: “Ellen worked hard for me in the previous races. That’s the beauty of this sport. We are a team. I was really emotional when she won.”
The runner-up behind Marianne Vos in 2013, van Dijk attacked on the Kruisberg, padded her lead on the final ascent of the Paterberg, and built an advantage of more than a minute by the time she rolled under the red kite, which allowed her plenty of time to enjoy the victory.
“It hurt, but when with a few kilometers to go I had a tailwind I knew I could win. And if you know your teammate is behind you, you can go just a little bit faster,” said van Dijk.
Armitstead and Johansson fought the battle for second just two seconds ahead of the bunch, led in by Elisa Longo Borghini (Hitech Products).
“Those last kilometers were really hard,” said van Dijk. “I still can’t believe I did it. I wanted to win three races in my career: the world title, the Tour of Flanders and the Olympics. Now only one remains.”
Armitstead retains her overall lead in the World Cup.