Ellen van Dijk pips Grace Brown to win Road World Championships opener

The sun was shining, the waves were rolling in and a Dutch woman was winning the opening race of 2022 UCI Road World Championships. It was seemingly the natural way of things – a predictable result in a flawless setting on the beachside streets of Wollongong, as Ellen van Dijk defended her women’s individual time trial crown and the Dutch national team won the sixth edition of the race over the past decade.

But if the 35-year-old’s victory on Sunday seemed predestined – her third world title since first winning the discipline in 2013, alongside four European time trial titles – it almost wasn’t to be. Australia’s Grace Brown sat in the hot-seat all day, after starting in the opening wave of riders and setting a blistering pace over a technical, undulating 34.2-kilometre course.

Brown’s finishing time, just under 45 minutes, was unmatched until the very end, when the last rider out, van Dijk, finally crossed the line. But it was a close-run thing: Van Dijk was forced to go out fast to match Brown’s earlier pace, and despite leading at the first and second intermediate time check, van Dijk faded in the last kilometres.

In the end only 12 seconds separated the Dutchwoman from her challenger. It was enough, albeit only just, for Van Dijk to defend the winner’s rainbow jersey and relegate Brown to the silver medal position. Swiss rider Marlen Reusser was third, adding bronze to her silver medal from last year’s Olympics.

“I’m a bit surprised to win,” van Dijk told reporters after the race. “For me I never thought it would be the perfect course.”

She is now the second most successful woman of all-time in the discipline, with three world titles, one silver and two bronze medals, behind only French legend Jeannie Longo. “I kind