Ellen Van Dijk shows her class in Vuelta a Extremadura by taking a fantastic GC victory for the team.
Starting the day just 6 seconds ahead of Uno-X Mobility’s Ottestad, Van Dijk and the rest of the Lidl-Trek team had to be attentive from the get go. A stage that originally had 2 Category 1 climbs on the menu was shortened to 69km and the Cat 1 climbs removed due to the awful weather conditions. This meant it wasn’t the easiest of days to control the bunch.
It wasn't the easiest to control because there were lots of girls who could still win the race and I didn't have a big advantage so we had to be super sharp. The girls were going full gas and were so impressive. In the intermediate sprint, we lost two seconds so it made it even tighter. On the last climb, the girls did a full lead out for me and I knew I had to finish it off.
After the great work from the girls, Ellen was able to finish it off by taking 3rd in the sprint for the line. In the final GC, Ellen kept yellow by 2 seconds showing just how important all the team’s work throughout the day was.
I'm super happy I could win this GC, especially to pay back all the hard work done by the girls. It was a great week here with a great atmosphere among the team. My focus was to win the time trial on stage 1a so to win the overall is such a nice bonus. A great start to the season so I'm very happy!
