Team Specialized-lululemon’s Ellen Van Dijk won her second consecutive tour on Sunday taking the overall in the Boels Holland Ladies Tour after an exciting final day of racing.
Setting up the win earlier in the week, the team won the team time trial event by over a minute with Trixi Worrack wearing the orange leaders jersey for the majority of the week. The final day saw an aggressive day of racing on the hilly course in Valkenberg. Annamiek Van Vleuten and Tatiana Guderzo making the most dangeous move of the day.
“It was a challenging day and we had to use our strength in numbers from the TTT results to defend the jersey today,” said Ronny Lauke. “The whole team rode really well all week to defend the lead and today we knew that we might have to play our cards in order to win overall.
“In the end it was Ellen who made the final chase group to bring the gap down to the two leaders and was able to bring the gap down to keep the jersey within the team.
“We’re looking forward to some quick recovery now before we line up our Giro della Toscana for one final hit out before World Championships.”
Ron Callahan is the chief cook and bottlewasher at Bike World News, doing everything from website design to bike reviews.