Ellen van Dijk had only a few days to mentally prepare for the UCI Road World Championships. She was registered as one of the elite women's riders in the Netherlands shortly after her compatriot Annemiek van Grooten withdrew from the race after breaking her wrist in a crash on stage 7 of the Giro Rosa.

Indeed, just two weeks earlier, van Dijk had lamented on Twitter that she would not be able to compete in the World Championships in Imola, Italy.

"Not being able to ride the TT at the World Championships hurts a lot. I think it's the downside of being part of a cycling powerhouse, the result of the UCI's selection criteria not being fair. But I will do my best in the road races.

Van Vleuten crashed and broke his wrist near the end of stage 7 of the Giro Rosa, so 2013 world champion and four-time European time trial champion Van Dijk, 33, was called up as a replacement.

Van Vleuten underwent surgery on September 19 and is considering a return to competition in this Saturday's road race after wearing a brace on her wrist. However, she did not want to beat van Dijk in the time trial.

"I should have looked for a course for the time trial and I should have gone to Italy earlier. I could have rested my wrist as much as possible. But it didn't seem right to substitute [van Dijk] with this hand," van Vleuten said of his Dutch teammate's support.

Van Dijk finished third on the 31.7 km Imola course, 31 seconds behind winner and countrywoman Anna van der Breggen.

"I am happy with my bronze medal. I was allowed to start only a week ago. I wasn't originally selected for the time trial, which is why I came here. I'm very happy," van Dijk said at the post-race press conference.

Van Dijk rolled off the start ramp 40th out of 51. The flat, non-technical course started with a headwind, and his time at the first checkpoint was a little slower than expected.

"My feeling was that I started too slow. I lost time on the first half of the straight. I have only regret. The first half didn't go well, but the second half was good; it was my fourth World Championship TT medal, adding to my gold medal in 2013, silver in 2016, and bronze in 2018.

"In the second round I was hardly inferior to Anna. I raced without earphones and without a power meter," van Dijk told ad.nl. "I wanted to leave some extra power for the second round, but then I failed."

Van Dijk became the first woman to complete the course with a speed over 46 km/h, and for a while, it was enough to take the hot seat from Australian Grace Brown. She fell from first place, but not off the podium. Her next chance for a medal will be in the road race.

"In two days I'll be on the road race with my team.

"Anne-Mike will probably be in the road race. Anne-Mike will probably be in the road race. I'm not sure if he's going to be there, because it was a big disappointment to leave the Giro Rosa in the pink jersey and miss this time trial."