Ellen van Dijk will retire at the end of 2025
After a 20-year pro career that has seen her win three World Time Trial Championships and the Tour of Flanders, peloton stalwart Ellen van Dijk will retire at the end of the 2025 season.
Van Dijk announced the news on De Avondetappe, the Tour de France talk show on Dutch NOS television. "I see riders in the peloton who are 19 years old," said Van Dijk, noting she's twice their age (Van Dijk turns 38 in February). "A whole new generation has emerged." Van Dijk added that only two other riders – Marianne Vos and Anna van der Breggen – have been racing professionally as long as she has. In her career, Van Dijk has seen and helped bring about a remarkable transformation in women's racing, including the debut of the Women's WorldTour, the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, and rising professionalism. In 2023, she stepped away from the sport for a season for her pregnancy and birth of her child, with the full support of her Lidl-Trek team.
Van Dijk turned pro in 2006 and has spent most of her career racing for the best teams in the sport, including HTC-Highroad, Boels-Dolmans (now SD Worx-ProTime) and for the last seven seasons at Lidl-Trek. While her palmarès of 70 pro road wins includes overall stage race wins and Classics, she is best known for her abilities against the clock. In addition to her three individual TT world titles, Van Dijk was part of four teams that won the short-lived World Championship Team Time Trial event that was held from 2012-2018. An accomplished track racer, she also won a World Championship in the scratch race in 2008 and held the World Hour Record (49.254 km) before Vittoria Bussi set a new mark 17 months later. [NOS]
