FABIO JAKOBSEN WINS BIG

 

Fabio Jakobsen (Netherlands) has won the Elite Road European Champion title today in Munich (Germany). The strong Dutch sprinter rode to victory after a closely fought sprint beating the French rider Arnaud Demare, also second in the 2020 European Championships, and the Belgian Tim Merlier finished in third place.

The race, which started in Murnau am Staffelsee, was full of action right from the beginning. At the start proper Silvan Dillier (Switzerland) and Lukas Pöstlberger (Austria) broke away from the peloton of 142 competitors and immediately worked together to gain a lead of 2’50” on the pack, constantly controlled by riders from the Netherlands, Italy and Belgium.

In the final stages with five laps of the spectacular city circuit in the center of the Bavarian capital, the peloton reduced the gap and caught up the two leaders twenty-seven kilometers from the finish. In the last few kilometers of the race, the pace was extremely fast and the peloton left no room for any attack, until three kilometers from the finish when the Swiss Stefan Bissegger made a surprise breakaway.

The Italians managed to catch up the Swiss rider but in the final sprint, Jakobsen, placed in perfect position by his team, crossed the line ahead of Demare and Merlier. This was the twelfth win of the season by Fabio Jakobsen, born in 1996.

The Road European Championships in Munich will resume on Wednesday 17 August with the Time-Trial races
and finish next Sunday (21 August) with the Women’s Road race.

The 25-year-old Dutchman took another win in what is already an outstanding season for him 14-Aug-2022: Fabio Jakobsen dashed to a spectacular victory in Munich, where the seventh edition of the European Championships takes place this year, cementing his status as the fastest sprinter in the world at the end of a 207.9km race that came down to a fast and furious bunch gallop.

IN FABIO’S OWN WORDS

“I am incredibly happy! To be European Champion is something that I only dreamed about, but at the start I was confident in my chances of turning this dream into reality, as I came in good shape and had a strong team. We don’t race too much together during the year, but everybody in the Netherlands team did a great job and put me in a perfect position going into the last kilometer, for which I am grateful to the guys.”

“I felt good today. I survived on the first climb, then struggled a bit on the steep gradients of the second one, but came through while the team made sure of keeping the breakaway’s advantage under control the entire time. In the final 200 meters, I just did my sprint and I am delighted with this victory, the gold medal and with having this jersey on my shoulders for the next twelve months”, an elated Fabio said after making it a dozen victories this season.”

Photo: Bettini/Sprint Cycling Agency