Van Dijk wins Baloise Ladies Tour

The 2022 Baloise Ladies Tour was a two-woman race. On the final stage, Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo) sealed the overall victory with the margins gained by winning the race's two time trials.

Meanwhile, Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) completed her utter domination of the other stages, winning her fourth of four road stages.

Van Dijk opened the race with the prologue victory, putting 11 seconds into Wiebes. The DSM rider fought back on the first road stage, gaining enough time bonuses mid-stage and by winning in Zulte to take the lead by one second.

Victories on the next two stages extended Wiebes' lead to 20 seconds. But Van Dijk obliterated that advantage in the 15.6km time trial in Knokke-Heiste, winning the stage by 51 seconds.

The bunch sprint on the final stage went again to Wiebes as Van Dijk finished in the peloton to take home the overall - her second stage race win of the season after winning the Bloeizone Fryslan in March.

Wiebes was second overall with Audrey Cordon-Ragot making it two Trek-Segafredo riders on the podium in third.

“It was really nice to bring the GC home and even better to share the podium with Audrey," Van Dijk said. "It has been a nice week with the team, and good working with Markel (Irizar) for the first time as a team director. He kept us focused and strong. The team controlled the race really well. They were in the front all day and took care of everything. 

“First the goal was to bring the GC home and that worked out well. It was nice there was a break gone so in the end we didn’t have to pull as a team which was really good.  We tried to prepare the sprint for Chloe (Hosking) in the end as a bonus. All went according to plan, and I am happy it was not so stressful. It was a good last day.

“All in all, it has been a good week. Something that has given good morale and confidence.”

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