Van Dijk beats Olympic medalists to win time trial title

KNOKKE HEIST, Belgium, Sept.20 (Reuters) – Ellen van Dijk of the Netherlands won the women’s time trial at the world road cycling championships in Bruges on Monday, beating Tokyo Olympic medalist Marlen Reusser of Switzerland and his compatriot Annemiek Van Vleuten to win the title.

Van Dijk, 2013 world time trial champion, clocked 36: 05.28 on the 30.3 km flat course from Knokke-Heist on the North Sea coast to central Bruges to win his second rainbow jersey.

Reusser, who won silver at the Tokyo Olympics, finished second by more than 10 seconds behind while two-time world champion and Tokyo gold medalist Van Vleuten was third, 24 seconds behind. rhythm.

“It has been a dream for so long to get this world title again,” said Van Dijk.

“This year everything was going so well but there was always this Marlen Reusser who was so strong. I knew I had a very good level but I also knew that she was super, super strong.

“For the past two weeks she beat me in every time trial and I knew it would get super tough… It was good that I didn’t know if it was good enough because I was started an hour earlier than the favorites. “

Reusser was faster after the first two checkpoints, dropping almost three seconds faster in the second to leave Van Dijk sweaty, but the Swiss lost time in the final section.

Two-time world champion Amber Neben, 46, came in fourth and Lisa Brennauer of Germany fifth.

Report by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Ed Osmond

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