Ellen van Dijk: 'I was really scared after my Paris-Roubaix concussion, but now I'm ready'

Lidl-Trek's returning star reflects on a 'horrible' first edition of the race in 2021 and the solace that 2022 provided ahead of her first Roubaix in two years

08:37, Friday 5th April 2024

George Poole

Junior Writer

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Ellen van Dijk is back in the pro peloton after giving birth to her first child

Sitting down with GCN at Lidl-Trek's hotel just two days out from her first Paris-Roubaix Femmes avec Zwift in two years, Ellen van Dijk looked relaxed, composed and eager to get going. It was a complete juxtaposition to her demeanour two and half years ago, when the Dutchwoman was riding the inaugural edition of the race long dubbed as the 'Hell of the North.'

On that day, besieged by torrential rainfall, unbearable conditions and torrid misfortune, Van Dijk entered the final major sector of cobblestones, Carrefour de l'Arbre, some six minutes after her teammate and eventual winner Lizzie Deignan. Covering the entire right-hand side of her body was a horrible concoction of mud, sweat and blood.

A day in hell, indeed.

"I was not happy at that moment! It was horrible, really so horrible," Van Dijk told GCN. "I was really looking forward to this first edition and I had no idea really what to expect, but then the weather was so bad and in the first cobblestone section, the first corner I straightaway crashed."

Her fortunes would only get worse as the race wore on. In total, the Dutchwoman crashed four times, the last of which came as she rejoined the front of the race. It was by far the worst incident and left Van Dijk dazed, but she pushed on to the finish in Roubaix, well aware of how much it meant to finish such an arduous Classic.

"Afterwards it wasn’t smart because I had a pretty bad concussion and it took me more than three months to get over it," she admitted. "I really didn’t enjoy that day but it was also strange because the team was riding well and Lizzie won, so everyone was happy and I was happy for them, but at the same time you feel so shit with the concussion."

Van Dijk rides past GCN during the 2021 edition of Paris-Roubaix Femmes

It was not that the course was a shock to Van Dijk and her Trek teammates - they did four recons - but the conditions which blighted the 2021 race created a melee of chaos that gave the women's peloton a rude awakening.

Van Dijk rode two race days after that Paris-Roubaix, but finished neither of them and spent much of the winter recovering from the concussion sustained on the pavé of northern France. The 37-year-old readily admits that the 2021 race left her more than a little hesitant heading into the following year's race.

"I was really scared going into that one because I had such bad luck in the one before, I thought ‘okay, I just need to go for it.’ The weather was good so that made a big difference, it was not so slippery as the year before and then I really felt I needed to be in the front, and the first cobblestone section, the longest one, I was in the front and I was really happy."

A flat tyre would ultimately dent her own opportunities, but after a lengthy chase, Van Dijk regained contact with the front of the race just as her teammate Elisa Longo Borghini was making what would become the race-winning attack. Successfully marking out the moves behind the Italian, Van Dijk rode to a commendable seventh place and regathered the confidence that had alluded her after the previous year's race.

"I needed that I think, I think if I would have crashed there again or multiple times, then maybe I wouldn’t sit here right now," she admitted.

The Lidl-Trek rider will be without Longo Borghini at this weekend's race. Despite initially removing Paris-Roubaix Femmes from her calendar, a suggestion had arisen that Longo Borghini would be added to the lineup in light of winning the Tour of Flanders last weekend. However, Van Dijk is not at all surprised to be without her teammate this time around.

"She was already so happy with Flanders and she also knows how brutal this race can be. Obviously she won it but then last year she also crashed and she didn’t have a great day. She really made a goal of the Ardennes."

Instead, Van Dijk will lineup in Denain as a co-leader alongside Elisa Balsamo and Lucinda Brand on Saturday, on paper at least.

Low expectations on Van Dijk for this weekend

The Thursday ahead of Paris-Roubaix was special in more ways than one. For Van Dijk, the cobbles called, but so too did her home life, with 4 April marking six months to the day since she gave birth to her first child, Faas. The Dutchwoman was at first unsure whether or not Paris-Roubaix would be an option upon her return, but her training has gone better than expected.

Within weeks of the birth, Van Dijk was back on two wheels, only this time her machine of choice was not a Trek road bike, but an ElliptiGO stand-up bike that allowed her to stretch her legs without sitting on a saddle so soon after childbirth.

Two victories have made her rapid return to road racing more successful than could have been imagined, though Van Dijk is under no illusions that Paris-Roubaix will be another test entirely to her time trial victories of late.

"I don’t have the expectation, I don’t know how my race form is at the moment. I did two Classics already but I also noticed that the positioning and everything is still pretty difficult for me at this moment, so it’s really hard to expect anything," she said.

"But I will just give my best, see how far I can go and coming from where I’m coming from now, I don’t have the expectations to go for the win here."

'I led out the sprint for Lucinda in 2022 and she finished third, so that day I really enjoyed it and I thought, ‘this race is really cool''

The likelihood is, however, that Van Dijk could play a crucial role for her Lidl-Trek team on Saturday. With Brand, Balsamo and Van Dijk as cards to play, the American team can throw the cat amongst the pigeons and look to take a third victory in four years. Longo Borghini was the beneficiary two years ago, Deignan some three years ago, and this time around, Lidl-Trek are equally as determined to animate proceedings.

"To be in the final with as many riders as possible, I think that is really the key, to play from that. I think you saw from the entire spring that this is how Lidl-Trek wins their races and I think it will be the same on Saturday."

Victory or not, Van Dijk will be pleased to be back at the race that once knocked the wind out of her sails - "I missed it last year a little bit and I had this feeling in the morning that I wish I could race," she admitted - and riding over the fabled cobbles of northern France continues to be a pleasure for those who have long celebrated the beauty of cycling's cruellest race.

"I always watched it on TV and it’s such a classic race that I always thought how cool it would be to actually race it, so I was super happy for the first edition for sure. But after the first edition, I thought I don’t need this."

Much in the spirit of Theo de Rooij - see his legendary interview after the 1985 Paris-Roubaix if the name doesn't ring a bell - Van Dijk refuses to let this race get the better of her. Rather, the bad times make the good times all the sweeter.

"But it still attracts, it is still something you want to do again because it is so brutal."

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