Van Dijk takes control at the Ladies Tour of Qatar

Ellen van Dijk and her Boels Dolmans team stamped their authority all over the Ladies Tour of Qatar with a performance as clinical as it was powerful on stage two from Al Zubarah Fort to Madinat Al Shamal. Van Dijk, who won the stage and moved into the overall lead at the race, combined with teammate Lizzie Armitstead to dissect and then devastate the field in a master-class of crosswind riding.

Only a brave sprint finish from Trixi Worrack (Velocio-SRAM) could split the Boels Dolmans tandem at the line, with van Dijk – the 2011 race winner – now leading Worrack by four seconds overall, and with Armitstead and a clutch of other riders a further three seconds in arrears.

The stage, peppered with crosswinds and echelons, saw overnight race leader Annalisa Cucinotta concede her leader’s jersey in the opening 10 kilometres but with the top six on general classification only separated by 27 seconds, the race is far from over.

At the start at the Al Zubarah Fort, it was Boels Dolmans who drew their battle lines firmly in the sand. Well before the official start Armitstead and Van Dijk led their troops onto the course in a bid to preview the opening kilometres. The pan-flat parcours, the subtle but noticeable cross-winds, followed by a sharp change in direction provided the perfect opportunity to start aggressively. Plenty of other teams followed suit, riding back and forth over the opening stretch of road but once the flag was dropped it was Boels Dolmans who once again moved onto the front foot.

They weren’t alone. In Orica-AIS and Wiggle-Honda they found willing allies and it was no coincidence that from the 16-rider leading group that formed early on, almost half of them came from the three squads.

Within a matter of minutes all three of yesterday’s jersey winners, including Giorgia Bronzini (Wiggle-Honda) had been spat 2out the back and three clear groups formed.

Van Dijk and Armitstead may be been the only two riders from their team present but Orica’s Emma Johansson put her accompanying three teammates to work, and with Chloe Hosking doing the same with her Wiggle entourage the gap soon crept above the minute mark.

Within 18 kilometres, the leaders had an advantage of 1:30 on the first group of chasers, with the race leader almost four minutes down.

When the race began the first of its four laps of the finishing circuit, the chalkboard read 2:55 and at the first intermediate sprint the gap rose to 3:30. It was Hosking who claimed three points, and three vital seconds, with Marta Tagliaferro and Johansson second and third respectively.

On the second lap of four, just as the riders turned left and away from a stiff headwind and into cross-winds, Boels Dolmans again lit the fuse.

Van Dijk dived down the side of the narrowing road, and immediately the elastic was stretched to breaking point. Hosking and Longo Borghini quickly responded with Worrack, Armitstead and Johansson also making it across.

The six riders instantly began to work. Johansson would later admit to Cyclingnews that she would have preferred the move to have been caught so that more of her teammates could have attacked with her, but with Wiggle and Boels in dominant form, the Swede was obliged to pull. Those left behind quickly saw their aspirations of the stage and the overall disappear up the road when a gap of two minutes was quickly established.

The second intermediate sprint saw Armitstead lead Johansson and Hosking over the line before Van Dijk launched a daring but ill-timed attack near the start of the final lap.

The Dutch rider’s second move was far more impressive. With the finish line still over 400 metres away, she jumped from the tiring group. Hosking and Longo Borghini hesitated and by the time Johansson reacted it was too late. Armitstead dutifully marked any inclination of a counter attack, leaving Van Dijk with a three-second buffer as she crossed the line.

In the overall standings, Van Dijk carries a lead of four seconds over Worrack into stage 3, while her teammate Armitstead and Hosking are a further three seconds back.

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