Ellen van Dijk

Eleonora Maria "Ellen" van Dijk (Dutch pronunciation: [eːleːjoːˈnoːraː maːˈrijaː ˈʔɛlə(ɱ) vɑn ˈdɛik]; born 11 February 1987) is a Dutch former professional road racing cyclist, who last rode for UCI Women's WorldTeam Lidl–Trek. Besides road cycling she was also a track cyclist until 2012. Van Dijk is known as a time trial specialist and is three time 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. She gave up speed skating and switched to cycling full-time after winning the national cycling championship for the fifth time in 2007. 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. In 2012, she competed in three disciplines at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where she helped Marianne Vos win the gold medal in the road race, finished eighth in the time trial and sixth in the team pursuit.