Ellen van Dijk (35) had long toyed with the idea of attacking the hour record and today is the day. “I am confident,” she said at the preview press conference in Grenchen, Switzerland.
It won’t be her preparation. Van Dijk has 15 people in her entourage, each of whom had their function. “I feel special because of the support they give me. Never before has so much effort been put into a woman’s hour record attempt,” says the Dutch cyclist.
Ellen van Dijk is the current world time trial champion and therefore knows what only suffering is. “But actually it is not comparable. This is a completely different discipline. You have to stay focused for a whole hour, while the course does not change. In time trials that is a maximum of 45 minutes and you constantly see different things.”
Also the great importance of the aerodynamic position was adjusting for Van Dijk: “In the position I have to hold, I can barely see anything, so it’s difficult to keep following my line. But the gain I make with that attitude is big enough to hold me.”
–
Whether she can actually beat the record – Lowden drove 48,405 km on the same Swiss track a year ago – is also a matter for Van Dijk herself. “I can’t predict it, but the intention is to go for it. I will start on a schedule that is ahead of the record and then we’ll see if I can hold it.”
The record attempt is very stressful. When one of the journalists notices that Van Dijk looks relaxed, she answers wittily: “You should ask my friend how relaxed I am. I think about it every second of the day, sometimes it even drives me crazy. And him too!”
–
–
