Ellen van Dijk wins Tour of Flanders World Cup

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Ellen van Dijk (Boels Dolmans) soloed to an impressive victory at the women’s Tour of Flanders. Her teammate Lizzie Armitstead beat Emma Johansson (Orica-AIS) in the sprint behind to give the Dutch team a 1-2.

Van Dijk went on the attack with 27 kilometres remaining, just before Kruisberg and used her time trialling skills to keep the chasers at bay. The reigning world time trial champion hit a speed of 55 kph as she powered to her first victory of the year. A number of riders tried to catch her, including Tiffany Cromwell (Specialized-Lululemon) and compatriot Lucinda Brand (Rabo Liv).

Armitstead’s second place is her third podium of the year, from three world cup races, and will keep hold of the lead in the competition.

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"Those last kilometres were really hard," Van Dijk said to the UCI. "I still can't believe I did it. I wanted to win three races in my career: the world title, the Tour of Flanders and the Olympics. Now only one remains."

Although there were a number of attacks during the 139.6km race, the women's field stayed largely together, at least at the front of the race. The first hour saw numerous crashes, sending riders such as Amanda Spratt (Orica-AIS) and Rikke Lønne of Team Rytger to the hospital as rain and nerves made the racing dangerous.

Gracie Elvin (Orica-AIS) and Valentina Carretta (Alé-Cipollini) had a go, but could not gain even half a minute on the field, and while Carretta tried again with Lucinda Brand (Rabo-Liv), as the race hit the critical final kilometers the peloton was still intact.

The decisive moment came when van Dijk attacked on the Kruisberg with 26km remaining, and quickly built up an advantage, the world individual time trial champion clearly capable of riding alone to the finish.

"It was our team tactics played out to perfection. I would go first and we would have Lizzie (Armitstead) behind me. It was from the book," van Dijk said.

Specialized-Lululemon's Tiffany Cromwell tried to go across, but was caught by the chase on the Oude Kwaremont. With only one climb to go, the Paterberg, Van Dijk's lead grew to 38 seconds.

As Van Dijk continued to build her lead, Armitstead, Emma Johansson and Elisa Longo Borghini left the field behind but were never able to close on the powerful Dutch rider. Once the Paterberg was behind her, Van Dijk made easy work of the final 13km to the line.

"It hurt, but when with a few kilometres to go I had a tailwind I knew I could win. And if you know your teammate is behind you, you can go just a little bit faster," Van Dijk said.

For Armitstead it's the third podium place in a row this season. After her victory in Drenthe she came in second both today as in Trofeo Binda. "Ellen worked hard for me in the previous races. That's the beauty of this sport. We are a team I was really emotional when she won," Armitstead said. She now leads the World Cup with 320 points to Johansson's 240. Van Dijk moved into fourth, just 15 points behind Anna van der Breggen (Rabo-Liv).

Rabo-Liv claimed the sprint classification lead with Iris Slappendel and the best young rider's jersey by Pauline Ferrand-Prevot. Van der Breggen moved into the lead of the mountains classification.

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