The opening stage of the ZLM Tour, a five-day stage race on Dutch soil, was a race against the clock of around fifteen kilometers. Team Visma | Lease a Bike keeps sweet memories of the race, as in the past Jos van Emden (2016 and 2019) and Primoz Roglic (2017) already grabbed victory in the opening time trial. In the two most recent editions, Olav Kooij won the overall classification. 

Van Dijke started the race against the clock in the very last position. Along the way, the residenit of Zeeland took the necessary risks in the corners. Partly due to the sharpness with which Van Dijke rode, he caught up with the former rider of Team Visma | Lease a Bike Development Maurice Ballerstedt, who started one minute ahead of him, but to no avail in terms of victory. On the line, Van Dijke had to concede 11 seconds to the Belgian Herregodts.

Van Dijke: "Just after finishing I was mostly disappointed that I just didn't win. Now that the result has sunk in, I realize that I can be proud of myself. I now have a good starting position, also in view of the final ranking. We participate in this race to win, so we all want to go for it. That will be possible on the one hand by grabbing bonification seconds, but we are also going to make a plan day by day and see where we can possibly trick the competition,” Van Dijke shows ambition. 

“During a time trial I completely detach myself from everything going on around me,” the youngster continued. "When I caught up with Maurice, I knew I was doing well. I know him from the past, and I know he's not a bad time trialist at all. However, I wasn't concerned at all with any intermediate times. I just focus on the next turn during a time trial. It's often putting the mind to zero, and turning on the throttle as much as possible. I wanted to make the fans from Zeeland along the side proud today and give them a victory, but unfortunately it just wasn't to be."

Van Dijke is developing rapidly in 2024, including in time trials. "In the Tour de Romandie I finished sixth in the prologue, and also in a long time trial in the Giro d’Italia I rode in the top 20. I am very grateful at the moment in terms of my development.The fatigue after the Giro is definitely there, but I was able to recharge for this race. I was also able to flip the mental switch and definitely don't feel completely burned out yet. We are going to make something beautiful out of it this week,” Van Dijke concluded.