Victor Campenaerts and Ellen van Dijk won their respective time trial races at European championships in Herning, Denmark Thursday.
LottoNL-Jumbo’s Belgian clocked a time of 53:12 on the 46-kilometer course, two seconds faster than Maciej Bodnar (Bora-Hansgrohe). Bodnar recently won the Tour de France’s stage 20 time trial. Cannondale-Drapac’s Ryan Mullen was third, four seconds slower.
Mullen rode the fastest split in the first half of the course, but Bodnar and Campenaerts both made up time in the second half to move past the Irishman.
“I had much competition today,” said Campenaerts. “Maciej Bodnar recently won the time trial in the Tour de France, for example. That says enough. Fortunately, I could beat him today. I’m looking forward to show my European jersey in the Tour of Britain.”
To win her second consecutive title, van Dijk rode the 31.5km course in 40:33. The Dutchwoman’s margin of victory was impressive — 58 seconds faster than Ann-Sophie Duyck (Drops). Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans) was third, 1:04 behind.
“The course suited me well and I felt I had good legs,” said van Dijk. “There were long straights with some small hills and the rain made some of the corners more challenging. Luckily I was going really well so didn’t have to take any risks and managed to get around safe to take the title again.”
The championship was van Dijk’s first major win since April, although she’s had seven podium finishes in UCI races since then.
Racing continues Saturday with the elite women’s road race and concludes Sunday with the elite men’s road race. The championships also include junior and under-23 categories.
The post Campenaerts and Van Dijk win European TT championships appeared first on VeloNews.com.