"I thought it was over" - Ellen van Dijk details van Vleuten's crash in first-person view

Ellen van Dijk had conquered the gold medal in the individual time-trial, and was seeking similar success today at the Mixed Relay TTT. Things went the wrong way from the very start however, as right in front of her, Annemiek van Vleuten crashed in the first meters of the race.

“I rode over something. I don't know what exactly, hopefully not about Annemiek," the individual time-trial World Champion said right after the race, where the Netherlands could not ride into a medal. "It seemed to me like she was pedaling through her gear, that the chain skipped. She clapped full on her steering wheel, so into the crush barriers…"

Van Vleuten took to Twitter to tell she believed it was a blown up front tire that caused her crash, which van Dijk could barely avoid - and has ridden over her compatriot's bike. With a medal at stake and a whole race ahead however, she had no option but to keep going. "Really had to reset myself afterwards, because I thought it was over. Until I realized that Riejanne and I still had to finish the time trial," she said.

Eventually the Netherlands found further bad luck as Bauke Mollema was sidelined after a mechanical problem, and the team could only manage fifth position. Away from the medals, van Dijk's priority was a different one: “The first thing I asked the soigneur was how Annemiek was doing. We just don't know yet, hopefully she's doing well."

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