Ellen van Dijk was impressively strong at Amstel Gold Race and after some big efforts on the hilly terrain, the Dutch time trial specialist turned sprinter to claim second place.
After the second ascent of the Cauberg, Van Dijk was riding together in a strong front group alongside, Lidl-Trek teammate, Anna Henderson but with the group also including Lorena Weibes (SD Worx Protime), there was a lot of riders trying to stop the group heading towards a reduced bunch sprint.
Both Lidl-Trek teammates were participating in the action to try to split the group further and eventually, it was van Dijk who found herself in a small five-rider group, with the selection made on the final la0.
After the Geulhemmerberg, van Dijk was dropped momentarily together with Misha Bredewold (SD Worx Protime), however, the duo were able to bridge back before opening up a gap to the others themselves.
After a high-speed descent, the duo hit the Cauberg for the final time with Bredewold able to distance van Dijk but, despite being caught on the descent by the chasers, the Lidl-Trek riders still had enough left in the tank to win the sprint for second place.
Ellen van Dijk breaks down the race 🎤
The start list here is the best I’ve seen all season so I knew if I wanted a chance then I had to eliminate all of the favorites. We had a really good situation in our group, but I was also thinking what could I do to make this situation better. I attacked many times throughout the race because I knew it wasn’t the best situation for me yet and, also, in the beginning the group didn’t want to work together because it was way too big - 20/25 riders - so I thought let’s first make a gap and try to get this group riding and that was really good because then other riders started to believe and take over so I could relax a little bit but I knew I had to make a difference somewhere. I tried many times and I was happy I could stay together with Mischa to close the gap to Persico, Puck and Labous and I also knew I had to be calm before the Cauberg to give me a chance because I knew for sure I wouldn’t be as strong as them. The first reaction is always ‘ah, I was going for the win' but, yeah, I never thought that I would be second here so really happy with my second place.
I was really really disappointed after Roubaix, I had a hard week I have to say and wasn’t happy at all...you can ask my boyfriend! I still don’t know what the problem was last week and I also didn’t feel amazing on the bike this week but I thought 'ok, just keep going and we will see, there’s no pressure and we’ll try do whatever we can this weekend.'
It helps when you don’t have much pressure on you. It’s important to get this result because it’s confirmation of my good shape and I worked really hard all winter and I’m happy I can put it into a result. Obviously, I still want to win and second is still second but I’ve had a good spring so far. I’d really like to win a world tour race but I also know it’s super difficult especially with my qualities but today I was close and yeah it’s still super nice to be on the podium in a world tour race in your home country. All of the girls were super strong, of course I was hoping to stay with Mischa but she was strong so she definitely deserved the win.
