In 2012, she competed in three disciplines at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, where she helped Marianne Vos win the gold medal in the road race, finished eighth in the time trial and sixth in the team pursuit.

Van Dijk graduated from Minkema College, Woerden, in 2005 and earned a bachelor's degree in Human Movement Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in 2011.

[11] When she was ten years old, Van Dijk started, together with her two brothers and Mariëlle Kerste, cross-training on a bike during the summer and she began competing in regional races.

In 2005, Van Dijk again won the Dutch national junior title in the individual time trial but finished second in the road race, again behind Vos.

[10] Van Dijk achieved two stage victories in the Tour Féminin en Limousin and in the Giro della Toscana.

[17] Because Van Dijk had more spare time in the winter after quitting speed skating, she was invited to join the Dutch national track cycling team.

[12] Due to her good results at the national track cycling championships, Van Dijk was chosen to ride the individual pursuit in the remaining two (out of four) 2007–2008 track cycling World Cups, where she could, via the UCI World Ranking system, potentially earn qualification for the 2008 Olympic Games.

[25] Van Dijk won the time trial on the road in the Holland Ladies Tour en route to finishing third in the final general classification standings.

She won the Sparkassen Giro and finished second in the Open de Suède Vårgårda World Cup race in Sweden.

Van Dijk dedicated her stage and overall win to teammate Carla Swart, who died whilst training after being hit by a truck a few weeks earlier.

[31] A few days later she started in the Gracia–Orlová, where she won the prologue and a stage and helped her teammate Evelyn Stevens to win the general classification.

[35] In the team pursuit, Van Dijk finished sixth together with Kirsten Wild, Amy Pieters and Vera Koedooder.

In between these victories, Van Dijk won the first and final stages of the Lotto–Decca Tour and as a result also topped the general classification, finishing ahead of Kirsten Wild in second place.

[40] Van Dijk also improved riding uphill and finished sixt in the fourth World Cup race, the hilly La Flèche Wallonne.

[45] In October 2013 Van Dijk announced that she signed a three-year contract with Boels–Dolmans, joining the likes of Lizzie Armitstead, Katarzyna Pawłowska and Christine Majerus.

[47] Van Dijk was not able to start in the Ladies Tour of Qatar because she did not recover in time from an illness after riding mountainbikerace Egmond-pier-Egmond.

Van Dijk attacked multiple times and was the only women who was able to get clear for a few laps with a maximal advantage of over half a minute.

[55] At the Open de Suède Vårgårda TTT, where she finished third with her team, she got some confidence back about her time trial performances.

In begin September Van Dijk won the time trial of the Boels Rental Ladies Tour, with a 12 seconds gap over her main rival Lisa Brennauer.

[56] With the other stages ending in a bunch sprint and sprinters winning the bonification seconds, Van Dijk finished third in the general classification.

During the first European race of the season, the Omloop het Nieuwsblad, van Dijk escaped from a front group of 15 riders on the Molenberg with 30 km to go.

The duo extended their advantage over the cobbled sections that followed, holding off the chase group to the line, where Van Dijk lost the two-up sprint.

During the second World Cup race, the Trofeo Alfredo Bina Van Dijk couldn't ride uphill with the fastest riders and finished eighth, with teammate Armitstead taking the win.

Van Dijk was selected to represent the Netherlands at the first 2015 European Games in the time trial and the road race in Baku, Azerbaijan in June.

With a good race over the straight circuit she was 36 seconds faster than the Ukrainian Hanna Solovey and won the first gold medal for the Netherlands.

Four days later, back in the Netherlands, she was not able to win the national time trial championships, finishing almost half a minute behind Van der Breggen.

[59] At home she had installed a high-altitude tent, and with a speedy recovery she went with Iris Slappendel to Switzerland to train at high altitude.

For the road race she rode for Anna van der Breggen who won the silver medal and finished in tenth place herself.

In July she won the time trial of the Thüringen Rundfahrt stage race, beating national champion Annemiek van Vleuten.

The current record was settled during the 2012 Summer Olympics by Van Dijk, Kirsten Wild and Vera Koedooder in a time of 3:20.013 (53.996 km/h) on 4 August 2012.