Ellen van Dijk wins 2021 Healthy Ageing Tour

Ellen van Dijk’s overall win at the Healthy Ageing Tour on Friday was a victory on multiple counts.

This is the Trek-Segafredo rider’s fourth victory at the Dutch stage race, she endured fierce competition from a hungry peloton and waged an additional battle with horrible weather during the final stage.

“Four times? Ah yeah four times,” Van Dijk said. “I have to say every time was different and I think for sure this was the hardest and also with the most exciting finale.”

Van Dijk entered Friday’s final stage in the leader’s jersey, but her overall victory was in no way a shoo-in with Amy Pieters (SD Worx), Lisa Brennaeur (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling), Emma Norsgaard (Movistar) and Lonneke Uneken (SD Worx) also keen to take the stage win.

“The plan going into the stage was to stay with my main competitors Amy Pieters and Lisa Brennauer, and also to be patient because it’s a really hard lap which sucks a lot of energy out of you, so don’t panic too early,” van Dijk said.

But, the plan quickly dissolved when Uneken attacked solo and gained an impressive lead of three minutes. She started the day just two minutes behind Van Dijk and temporarily assumed the virtual GC lead.

“When Lonneke Uneken attacked I thought it was good, because I was in a group with four from SD Worx, so I thought, ‘she’s two minutes behind me on GC, so that’s fine, she can go,’” Van Dijk said.  “We heard on the radio all the time it was one minute, which was fine. But suddenly it was three minutes so then the panic was there, and we had to do all we could. Lauretta [Hanson] did some crazy good work and then I had to take over.”

To keep the race under control, Hanson was pulled out of the breakaway to help. As the tension increased, the size of the chasing peloton decreased, eventually leaving just a handful of the strongest riders to battle it out.

And then, there was the weather to contend with.

“In the meantime, it became so cold and rainy, and I almost couldn’t see anything anymore, my hands were frozen, so the shifting was a real problem,” van Dijk said. “On the second to last lap, I had a big problem to shift to easier gears on the cobbles. So I was in way too big of a gear and I could not follow the group with my main competitors, but then I could chase back afterwards again. I knew that I was not feeling super bad, but just struggling so much from the cold.”

It was touch and go heading into the final lap of the Col du VAM circuit, and van Dijk was tiring from the sustained efforts. The gap to Uneken started to drop, but there was also a threat from the riders around van Dijk: the riders in the top of the GC were within a half-minute or less of her lead. With the finish atop the Col du VAM, anything could happen – especially after being on the limit for so long in miserable weather.

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“In the last lap I had to chase full-gas, or we would lose it to Uneken,” van Dijk said. “I knew that the last climb was going to be a big challenge. On the final climb, I was really parked, and I just had to get up there. I couldn’t go with Brennauer and Norsgaard, and I knew they were dangerous, so I just had to give it all to the finish line. At one point I didn’t even know if I would make it over the cobbles anymore. It was just a struggle but that makes the victory even sweeter. I wasn’t very fast anymore, but in the end just fast enough.”

Van Dijk hauled herself up the final climb, crossing the cobbled finish line in fourth place, 1:29 behind stage winner Uneken, and 15 seconds behind Brennauer and Norsgaard. The final GC calculations show Van Dijk just six seconds from Brennauer in second, and 12 seconds from Norsgaard in third.

“I couldn’t have done it without the team,” Van Dijk said. “It was a real team effort and also the mechanics were shouting from the side of the road and soigneurs were there and Ina [Teutenberg] – really everyone was involved, a great team atmosphere and so cool to see.”

“I am so happy I could pay off the work of the team and to bring this one home is a very nice feeling. First win of the year! On to more!”