Ellen © lululemon

Ellen Van Dijk

She started speed skating at 5, which may sound sort-of extreme to people from any other country but the Netherlands. But for Dutch kids, it’s pretty run-of-the-mill. When she was about ten years old, she started cross training on the bike and by age fifteen, she’d done her first national race.

It wasn’t until the Junior World Championships in 2004 that she first started to believe in herself. The course had a big climb and she doesn’t fancy herself much of a climber. She thought she wouldn’t do anything at all except maybe just stay with the pack to the end. But she ended up taking home a bronze medal that day.

She is a developing young rider with a lot of potential and a lot of power. Last year she won the Tour of Qatar and a stage of the Holland Ladies Tour. This year she’ll be focusing on the Olympic time trial and the team pursuit on the track. Plus, the World Championship TTT in the Netherlands.

Her favorite thing about cycling: Finding out you can do something you thought you weren’t able to do, going beyond your limits. Oh, and also her SRM.

Her least favorite thing about cycling: the saddle.

If she weren’t a bike racer: She has been studying human movement science and hopes to do something in that field someday.

Her mantra: Success is a choice.

Career Highlights

•  Overall winner of Tour of Qatar 2011
•  Winner of the ITT at Holland Ladies Tour 2011
•  Winner of Sparkassen Giro 2010
• World Track Champion 2008
• Two time World Cup Champion (track), Copenhagen WC 2009
•  European Track Champion 2008
•  National champion individual pursuit & time trial 2007