'Not over yet': Concussion lingers for Ellen van Dijk after Paris-Roubaix crashes

Ellen van Dijk says she is still feeling the effects her crashes at the first women's Paris-Roubaix, confirming "I still cannot train the normal amount of hours or intensity that I would like."

She added that the effects of the concussion had affected her off-season and were "not over yet."

The European road race champion and world time trial champion, Van Dijk, had an incredibly good 2021 but finished with a tough ride at the 'Hell of the North' where she crashed four times, sustaining a concussion and finishing in 32nd place, 8-32 behind Trek-Segafredo team-mate Lizzie Deignan. 

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Van Dijk is currently at Trek-Segafredo's training camp despite still feeling the effects.

"February will be my first race so it's really nice that I have the time," Van Dijk said in a press conference at the team's training camp."

"If you could time a concussion I think I would time it right now because... there's not so much stress and I really have the time to recover from it."

Concussion can bring with it very serious side effects, and recovery requires rest. Van Dijk said: "I still cannot train the normal amount of hours or intensity that I would like to so I still have to adjust and I have to rest a lot more... I think it's going quite well and then all sudden I have to complete off day again and I cannot train or something. I'm still juggling with it, but it's going better and better.

"It's just something that's not over yet. It's affecting training with everything, all of life.

"I had a nice offseason but I couldn't really do so many social things because when you have noise and light and everything around it's... it's not so nice. 

"That was just a shame but at the same time, you know, there's enough nice things to look back on so that much easier."

The 34-year-old added that her race programme is very similar to the season just gone with the Classics being her first major goal where she will play a joint leadership role alongside the likes of Elisa Longo Borghini and Lizzie Deignan.

After that she will be hoping to look at the first edition of the reincarnated women's Tour de France which she said had "a bit for everyone" but she "only really missed the time trialing."

After that the Dutch powerhouse aims to defend her European road title and world time trial title as well as potentially going for the European TT and worlds road race as well.