INTERVIEW: ELLEN VAN DIJK
We find out why the Dutch TT specialist is known as ‘The Queenmaker’
Ellen van Dijk may not be the same household name as some of her compatriots, but over her 12-year career the Dutchwoman has become known as one of the strongest and most reliable riders in the women’s peloton. During her two seasons with the American Specialized-Lululemon squad, Van Dijk earned the nickname ‘the Animal’ for her sheer power. ‘Queenmaker’ is another name that has been given to her by fans in recent years because of her ability to set up her teammates for victory.
Dutch coach Thorwald Veneberg, who has known Van Dijk for the best part of a decade and helped coach her ahead of the Rio Olympics in 2016, calls her a good soldier and a rider who will do exactly what is asked when asked to do it.
“As soon as there is a parcours, and it is known that it is suitable for her, then she starts visualising it. She wants the images of the film that we have made, and she immediately starts working towards
that goal. She is very dedicated, she’s very serious and very coachable. She’s very nice to work with,” Veneberg tells
Procycling. “She has this power and an ability to stay in a high output for a long time and she’s also a very good soldier. She’s very good and reliable. If you make an agreement for a specific point in the race, she will be there and she will do what has been agreed.”
Van Dijk’s stocky 6ft figure stands out in the women’s peloton, where most of her rivals hover around the 5’6” mark. Of the other riders who finished in the top 10 of the WorldTour rankings – Van Dijk ended the season in eighth – Jolien D’Hoore is the next tallest at a smidge over 5’7”. Rather than let it hinder her, Van Dijk has utilised her physique to her advantage.
A cursory glance at Van Dijk’s palmarès leaves you in little doubt what her forte is. Of the more than 40 victories that she has achieved on the road, more than half of them have come in timed events. She is reigning European champion in the time trial and won the world title in Florence in 2013. Van Dijk is also the most successful team time trial rider, and holds four world titles with three different teams, plus a silver medal.
Her final push was instrumental in securing Team Sunweb’s surprise victory at the World Championships in Bergen in September, and it is little coincidence that she has been part of so many titlewinning teams. Van Dijk’s ability to push out the watts for longer than most other riders in the peloton is a huge part of her success, but, says Veneberg, sometimes it needs to be reeled in.
“I think that Ellen is one of the strongest riders in the women’s peloton,” he says. “She has a lot of power and she can take a lot of hard races because she is so strong and she can do a lot of training. She trains a lot at a very high level and that is also her weakness. She never needs someone to give her a push, but she sometimes needs someone to say, ‘Stop, relax now, you’ve done enough.’
“She’s comparable with Annemiek [van Vleuten]. She does the same. She stresses a bit more than perhaps Anna [van der Breggen], who has a different approach and is more relaxed in her coaching. She takes it as it comes and thinks more in the moment and not so much before. Anna also gets stressed, but I think for Anna it is easier. It is also possible that there are differences in the details. I know with Annemiek and Ellen that every detail has been looked at twice, or three times.” M alcolm Gladwell wrote in his book Outliers that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in a field, whether it be music, math or sport. It’s a controversial theory, and in cycling there is no one clear-cut recipe for success.
Some riders, such as Marianne Vos, turn professional and collect big wins right from the off. Vos turned professional in 2006 at the age of 18 and by the end of the year she had world titles in cyclo-cross and road cycling. Most riders aren’t so lucky. For the vast majority, the big wins come, if they come at all, after years of learning from their mistakes and gradually becoming a
There are quite a few Dutch cyclists who come from speed skating because of the endurance and power in the legs
master of their craft. Van Dijk, who turned professional the same year as her compatriot Vos, is one of the latter.
“Every year she has taken a little step, in getting stronger but also in getting results,” Veneberg explains. “Slowly, she has become the top athlete that she is now. It is a good example for young girls. Sometimes they are disappointed about results, but then I say look at Ellen and how long it took her to become one of the best riders. They shouldn’t always compare themselves to Marianne, because she was good at a very young age.”
Van Dijk, like many Dutch athletes, began her sporting career in speed skating rather than cycling. The Dutch women have been known for their dominance in cycling – they won every elite competition at this year’s World Championships and their male counterparts were fairly successful too - but the country takes it to a whole other level when it comes to the ice rink. In the last Winter Olympics, the Dutch won 23 medals. All 23 of them, including eight gold medals, came in speed skating.
Their haul was unprecedented and had their opponents concerned about the sport’s future. Following the overwhelming orange success in Sochi, the WallStreetJournal set out to understand what was behind the dominance. The American paper came to the conclusion that it was the inclusion of cycling into their training programme. It is this pairing of sports that has led many a speed skater to move from the two blades to two wheels, permanently.
“There are quite a few Dutch cyclists that come from speed skating because of the endurance and the power in the legs. It is a little bit the same as you need for cycling,” Van Dijk explains to Procycling. “For speed skating, you often train in the summer on the bike and then sometimes you find out that it’s going quite well and then you go to a local race.”
It was through this cross-training that Van Dijk became involved in cycling and as a teenager she began competing in national events. Six years into her professional career, Van Dijk was competing at her first Olympics in 2012 after enjoying a breakthrough on the road the season before. She finished eighth in her favoured discipline, the time trial, before going on to take sixth on the track in the team pursuit.
Van Dijk’s Olympic debut would lead into a dream 12 months that brought a team time trial world title, an individual time trial world title and her third Dutch time trial victory. In 2014 she went on to win the Tour of Flanders, using her abilities against the clock to distance the pack to win by more than a minute over her team-mate Lizzie Armitstead
I didn’t force myself with any schedules. I just enjoyed riding and I think that is the basis if you need to get motivation back
(now Deignan). There have been other big wins since, namely her two European time trial titles this year and last, but Van Dijk has had to deal with some big setbacks, too. The time trial in Rio, particularly, had a heavy impact on Van Dijk’s confidence and motivation after a small error on the descent of the second climb ruled her out of medal contention. Then a near miss at the Qatar Worlds added to the frustration.
“It was a different year for me after the Olympics in Rio,” says Van Dijk. “Right after it was difficult, but there were a lot of races coming afterward like the Europeans and Worlds. It was only after the World Championships where I finished second in the time trial that I was really disappointed. I didn’t have a clear goal any more and then you start thinking about it. I was fourth in Rio by a few seconds, and I was second in Qatar. I had a really good level, but I wasn’t able to get the result out of it that I wanted. In the winter it was a bit harder to find my motivation, but I really love to ride my bike and I didn’t force myself with any schedules. I just enjoyed riding and I think that is the basis if you need to get back. I really enjoy it. Then the motivation starts to come back.”
While the team time trial could hardly have gone better for Van Dijk and her Sunweb colleagues in Bergen, the individual event left the Dutchwoman with a bitter taste. Her team-mates Van Vleuten and Van der Breggen took the top two spots respectively, but Van Dijk could only watch their podium celebrations after she finished fifth. Veneberg was unable to pinpoint what went wrong for Van Dijk on the day, musing that perhaps she hadn’t given herself enough preparation time. The team will meet at a training camp in November where they will dissect the intricacies of what happened.
For now, Van Dijk and the rest of the peloton are enjoying a well-earned break before they look ahead to 2018. At 30 years old, there is still time for Van Dijk to make up for those disappointments. The Tokyo Olympics in 2020 are not beyond her reach and even Paris 2024 is not an unrealistic target, depending on how long she wishes to push on for. Veneberg is confident that the Dutchwoman will be back on top.
“She will become world champion again,” Veneberg says emphatically. “I think she will also win some big races, some big Classics like she already has and maybe the Worlds [road race] when the parcours is a little bit more suited to her, with fewer climbs. Maybe not next year, but maybe in Yorkshire. She’s always good to have in the team so I’m not saying that I won’t select her, but for winning it might be a little bit too hard.”