Ellen van Dijk "actually a bit surprised to win" third time-trial World Championships

Ellen van Dijk entered the women's Elite Time-Trial as one of the main favourites, and she backed up her status by taking the win, her second consecutive and third title in the discipline.

“I am actually a bit surprised to win. For sure, I prepared as well as possible but also for me I never thought it would be the perfect course," van Dijk told reporters after the race. "I also didn’t have a reference recently because my last race was the Europeans and I didn’t feel very good there so I also had to take some time off and reset and really focus on this race.

“I had quite a good preparation on this but I didn’t know what it was worth. Also, on this course, it was difficult to know what to expect," the Dutch rider said of the 34-kilometer route which saw enough terrain for meaningful differences. She admitted she did not have the win in mind much: "Last week, I had some problems with my back but it was probably more tension and stress than anything else. Like I said, I didn’t expect it. I said bye to my jersey yesterday and put it at the bottom of my bag. It was a really great year and I really enjoyed it. I felt happy and I felt that anything that came today was a bonus. It is a great moment.”

What followed however was a convincing win, as she rolled through the first intermediate with nine seconds of Marlen Reusser, and the second intermediate with 22 seconds over Grace Brown - who respectively completed the podium. Everything was set for a third set of rainbow stripes, and although she lost some of her advantage towards the end, she was the fastest in Wollongong. “The course had a lot of rhythm changes, up, down, left, right. I don’t mind riding corners but I don’t like changing my rhythm all the time so I really trained for that in the last few weeks... I tried to prepare for it in a super specific way and it worked out," she said.

“My first title was when I was the favorite. I could do it then and it was really nice. Last year was really emotional because I was waiting for it for so long and finally I got it. This one, I am still sort of processing it because it’s a bit more of a surprise," the Dutch rider admits. "It sounds a bit stupid, but it was a bit of a confirmation that I was the best again. It feels great."

Her eighth win of the season, this won't be the final race for the 35-year old, but she has made sure she left 2022 with big achievements on her palmarès. “Of course, the only goal is winning. We definitely have a different approach from last year, we have worked a lot on team building, we have had a lot of meetings together not just on the bike but off the bike and I think that we are ready for Sunday. We will see but for sure the Dutch team will be ready," she concluded.