The Dutch rider from Team Sunweb was the fastest in the prologue as she completed the 3.4 kilometre course around Halden town centre in a time of 3min 45sec.

This put the recently crowned time trial winner from the European Road Cycling Championships, held in Denmark earlier this month, 0.64sec ahead of another rider from The Netherlands, Marianne Vos.

After bettering the London 2012 Olympic Games road race gold medallist’s time, Van Dijk had to endure a two hour wait to see if she had beaten the rest of the cyclists in the Norwegian town.

Eventually, she was confirmed as the winner of the prologue, which saw Australia’s Katrin Garfoot finish third.

“This is a really nice win to take and I will for sure take some time to enjoy this moment," Van Dijk told Cycling News.

"It was a really exciting finish with lots of fast specialists finishing in the last block of riders, so I really wasn't sure what the end result would be until the last rider came across the line.

“I feel like the legs are good and I'm looking forward to seeing how things go for the rest of the week with the team.”

Tomorrow sees the riders take on a 105km course from Halden to Mysen.

The final stage of the four-day race will be held on Sunday (August 20).