page_title: Ellen van Dijk
section_title: 2012
hierarchical_section_title: Ellen van Dijk / Sport career / Professional career / 2012
caption_attribution_description: English: Ellen van Dijk during the time trial at the 2012 Summer Olympics supported by the Royal Family (Willem-Alexander, Maxima, Amalia Alexia and Ariane). On the right is the Mayor of Richmond upon Thames, Rita Palmer.Nederlands: Ellen van Dijk tijdens de tijdrit van de Olympische Spelen in 2012 in Londen. Aangemoedigd door leden van het Koninklijk Huis (Willem-Alexander, Maxima, Amalia Alexia and Ariane). Rechts is de burgemeesteres van Richmond upon Thames, Rita Palmer.
context_page_description: Eleonora Maria "Ellen" van Dijk is a Dutch professional road racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Trek–Segafredo. Besides road cycling she was also a track cyclist until 2012. Van Dijk is known as a time trial specialist and is five times world champion. She won her first world title on the track in the scratch race in 2008. She became Road World Champion in 2012, 2013 and 2016 with her respective trade teams in the team time trial and in 2013 also in the individual time trial. In 2015, she won the time trial at the first European Games and the silver medal in the team time trial at the world championships.
  Van Dijk started as a speed skater and as part of her skating training she undertook cycling as part of cross-training in summer. She excelled at both, competing nationally at junior level. After becoming a national cycling champion for the fifth time in 2007, she quit speed skating and became a full-time cyclist. Along with her world title successes, Van Dijk has also twice been European track champion, three times European time trial champion and has won six World Cup races.
context_section_description: After a knee injury due to an accident with a scooter and a few weeks of required rest and adjusted training, Van Dijk won a stage in the Energiewacht Tour; because she did not earn enough bonus seconds during the tour she finished second in the general classification. Van Dijk also won the individual time trial and the road race in the Omloop van Borsele. A few days later she started in the Gracia-Orlova, where she won the prologue and a stage and helped her teammate Evelyn Stevens to win the general classification. Back in the Netherlands, in Emmen, she became the Dutch time trial champion in the elite category for the second time in her career.
  Van Dijk was selected to represent her country at the Olympic Games in London, and she competed in the road race and the individual time trial on the road and in the team pursuit on the track. In the road race, Van Dijk was a domestique for Marianne Vos, who won the gold medal. Van Dijk attacked five times but finished outside the time limit. Because the victory of Marianne Vos was seen as a team performance, Van Dijk, Loes Gunnewijk and Annemiek van Vleuten were all subsequently honoured in both the Holland Heineken House and the Ridderzaal. In the time trial, Van Dijk finished eighth. She said afterwards that she was afraid to start too fast and subsequently lost a lot of time in the first part of the race. In the team pursuit, Van Dijk finished sixth together with Kirsten Wild, Amy Pieters and Vera Koedooder. In the qualification heats, the team had held the Olympic record for a short period and they rode a new Dutch national record in round one. According to Van Dijk, sixth place was the highest attainable place the team could have hoped to achieve.
  As preparation for the Road World Championships, Van Dijk and her Team Specialized–lululemon won the team time trials at the World Cup (Vargarda) and in the Holland Ladies Tour. In between these victories, Van Dijk won the first and final stages of the Lotto-Decca Tour and as a result also topped the general classification, finishing ahead of Kirsten Wild in second place. At the World Road Championships in Valkenburg Van Dijk became world champion in the team time trial with Team Specialized–lululemon. Three days later, Van Dijk finished fifth in the individual time trial on a hilly course that she afterwards described as being "not made for me". During the winter period she chose not to ride on the track to keep her focus completely on the 2013 road cycling season.
caption: Ellen van Dijk supported by Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands and his family at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
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