Ellen van Dijk claims 2nd time trial title at cycling worlds

BRUGGE, Belgium (AP) — Eight years after her first world championship title, Ellen van Dijk powered her way to a second gold medal in the women’s time trial on Monday.

Taking advantage of a flat course through the Flanders region of Belgium, the 34-year-old Dutch rider kept the pedals of her bike churning in a perfectly paced cadence to beat her closest rival Marlen Reusser of Switzerland by 10.29 seconds at the road cycling world championships.

“For me, time trial is my favorite discipline,” said van Dijk, who won her first time trial world title in 2013. “It’s something I love with all my heart, and it just feels like it’s my discipline. I knew it was going to be a really good course for me, and I put everything into this. It’s a dream come true.“

While van Dijk was able to keep a fast tempo over the 30.3-kilometer course, Reusser ran out of gas near the end and had to be content with a runner-up finish on the day she turned 30. She also claimed silver last year and was runner-up at the Olympic Games this summer.

Reusser led at both intermediate checks but faded over the last 10 kilometers.

“In the last couple of weeks she beat me in every time trial, so I knew it would become super, super difficult and I would have to ride the best, best ever time trial,” van Dijk said. “When I saw she lost seconds in the end then I could not quite believe it. It has been a dream for so long.”

Van Dijk was so fast that she caught Lisa Klein with 9.5 kilometers left before the finish line in the historic center of Brugge, the city known as the Venice of the North for its picturesque canals and bridges. The German rider had rolled off the starting ramp 1 minute, 30 seconds before van Dijk.

Olympic champion Annemiek van Vleuten, another Dutch rider, was third, more than 24 seconds off the pace. Aged 46, two-time world champion Amber Neben of the United States finished fourth, just weeks after suffering fractures in her pelvis during a training ride.

___

More AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sport