HTC-Columbia’s Ellen Van Dijk has captured the time trial stage of the Holland Ladies Tour on Saturday for the second year running - but it was a very close victory.

Van Dijk outpaced Holland’s Marianne Vos by just a few hundredths of seconds in the 12.7 kilometre race against the clock held in the town of Rijssen.

“Ellen won the same stage back in 2009, so she was really motivated to do well again even if she had had a hard time earlier this week in the race,” commented HTC-Columbia sports director René Wenzel. “It was a similar kind of course, too, to last year’s - short, technical and very tricky, with some 90 degree corners you have to take at top speed.”

“You had to have really good bike-handling skills to do well here, and that’s what maybe made the difference today. She didn’t have any time references, because radios aren’t allowed in this category of racing, so she had to judge her own effort - and it all worked out fine.”

Wenzel said Van Dijk’s win, coupled with a fifth place in the tt for Linda Villumsen, had helped the team bounce back after a series of setbacks earlier in the day.

Team-mate Ina-Yoko Teutenberg didn’t start the morning’s stage because of sickness, then Chloe Hosking crashed, suffering possible concussion, and the team decided that she should not continue in the race as a precaution.

“We’ve only got four riders in the race now,” Wenzel said, “but a win like that and really good performances by the others is a boost for everybody’s morale.”