Van Dijk solos to victory at Omloop van Het Hageland

Ellen van Dijk (Sunweb) was triumphant on Sunday in Tielt-Winge, Belgium at the UCI 1.1 Omloop van Het Hageland with a solo attack inside the final six kilometers. She hung on to take the win by over 10 seconds, as Chloe Hosking (Ale-Cipollini) won the bunch sprint for second. Jolien D’hoore (Mitchelton-Scott) rounded out the podium.

Despite freezing temperatures, Team Sunweb showed their strength and prowess on Sunday by putting the peloton on their limit during the key moment in the race. The course at Hageland finishes with multiple laps of a 13-kilometer circuit, which includes a tough short climb. Sunweb drove the pace to the bottom of the final ascent of the climb and then Liane Lippert and van Dijk, both of Team Sunweb, attacked. Lippert rode herself into the ground before Van Dijk then powered on alone. None of the other riders in the peloton were able to follow the pace of the Sunweb duo on the climb.

Over the climb, van Dijk still had about five kilometers to go, but the Dutchwoman is no slouch in the time trial. Despite getting an advantage of no more than 15 seconds, she was able to hold off the peloton and take the victory.

“The team was really incredible today, everyone did their job perfectly,” van Dijk said. “We were constantly attacking all race and it was my job to just stay calm. The girls did a super strong lead-out onto the last climb and nobody could follow us.

“From then it was all or nothing and I knew I just had to keep riding to the finish and not look back. There was a really hard crosswind section on the open fields and I realized it would be really hard to stay away by myself, but I just carried on and it paid off. I’m really happy to finish off the team’s hard work today with the win.”

Omloop van Het Hageland is a race in the Lotto Cycling Cup, a series of Belgian UCI races, and takes place around the town of Tielt-Winge, where the start and finish lines are located. The course on Sunday consisted of an opening 53km loop, followed by six local laps of 13.3km. The race covered 133 kilometers overall.

Top 10

• 1. Ellen van Dijk, (NED) TEAM SUNWEB, in 03:36:14
• 2. Chloe Hosking, (AUS) ALE CIPOLLINI, at 0:12
• 3. Jolien D’hoore, (BEL) MITCHELTON SCOTT, at 0:12
• 4. Maria Giulia Confalonieri, (ITA) VALCAR PBM, at 0:12
• 5. Giorgia Bronzini, (ITA) CYLANCE PRO CYCLING, at 0:12
• 6. Roxane Fournier, (FRA) FDJ NOUVELLE – AQUITAINE FUTUROSCOPE, at 0:12
• 7. Julie Leth, (DEN) WIGGLE HIGH5, at 0:12
• 8. Christina Malling Siggaard, (DEN) TEAM VIRTU CYCLING, at 0:12
• 9. Valerie Demey, (BEL) LOTTO SOUDAL LADIES, at 0:12
• 10. Kaat Hannes, (BEL), at 0:12