Ellen van Dijk seals overall victory at the Bloeizone Fryslan Tour

Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo) took the victory at the inaugural Bloeizone Fryslan Tour, finishing safely in the peloton on the third and final stage to beat Riejanne Markus (Jumbo-Visma) to the title by seven seconds.

Stage 3 saw a battle of the Italian sprinters as Rachele Barbieri (Liv Racing-Xstra) prevailed over Martina Fidanza (Ceratizit-WNT). Elodie Le Ball (St Michel-Auber 93) rounded out the stage podium. 

The 137-kilometre race was conducted on two laps of a circuit that started and ended in Drachten. Mischa Bredewold was on the attack and gained as much as a 1:30 advantage over the peloton as the second lap was underway. The Parkhotel Valkenburg rider, however, could not hold off the charging assembly of teams as the sprinters took over on the flat terrain. 

Van Dijk added a fifth overall title to her resumé on Saturday at the Dutch race, formerly known as the Healthy Ageing Tour. She won the opening time trial to hold the race lead for all three days.

“It’s been a couple of very nice days with this small team here, staff and riders, and we’ve had a lot of fun. I am very happy to take the win here. My main objective was to win the TT on the first day, which I achieved, “ the reigning time trial World Champion said. 

“We were here with a small team, just four of us at the end. However, the girls did a really really great job and it’s very cool to see how the younger riders are stepping up. Letizia [Paternoster] is getting better with every race and Elynor [Backstedt] is looking super strong too, it’s cool to see her working so hard for the team.

“For me, it’s nice to be able to guide them a little bit at these kinds of races and seeing them do so well was the highlight of this GC win for sure. I also need to add a thank you to Chloe [Hosking] as today she was working to help me and gave up her sprint chances, so that was nice.”