Ellen van Dijk (Team Sunweb) took the win in Dwars door Vlaanderen (1.1) today, after shaking off her late-breakaway companions to ride a six kilometre solo effort to the finish.
Second place went to Amy Pieters (Boels – Dolmans Cycling Team) with Van Dijk’s team-mate Floortje Mackaij completing an all-Dutch podium.
Speaking of the win, van Dijk said: “Today was a great race for the team. It’s really great to see how we turned things around after our bad luck this season. Today was really a textbook race, and we did everything that we had planned to. The girls were always really well positioned and setting a hard pace on the climbs. Me and Floortje were in the 7-rider break and with 20 kilometres to go we just attacked and attacked, maybe 10 times in total.
“With 6 kilometres to go Floortje attacked, and I went directly after. I opened up a gap and gave it everything I had. The win is a great way to finish this perfect team work and with Floortje also finishing 3rd, the day couldn’t have gone any better. It gives us good confidence with Sunday in our minds.”
Team Sunweb coach Hans Timmermans said: “We did a fantastic job as a team today, all six riders did their job close to perfection. Julia and Pernille’s position was great towards the Kruisberg and Ruth and Liane did a fantastic job pacing up the Kruisberg and also the Trieu after that. From then on it was Floortje and Ellen who made the difference on the Trieu.
“They did an amazing job to be in the break with the two of them and for Floortje it’s something new to be up there in the final, which is great. We attacked time and time again in the final 15 kilometres and in the end no one could follow. It shows how strong the team is before Flanders and we are also ready to go for a fantastic result in that race as well.”
