Fabio Jakobsen is ‘absolutely no longer at a professional level’ says ex-Giro winner Dumoulin

Olav Kooij returned in May with two sprint wins at the Boucles de la Mayenne. After a spring completely ruined by a virus, the Dutchman from Decathlon CMA CGM won two stages, but in the background another Dutch sprinter was having a much tougher time. Fabio Jakobsen was time-cut in the second stage, and that is causing Tom Dumoulin and Stef Clement a great deal of concern.

It hurts Dumoulin to see Jakobsen riding around like this. “He really is not moving forward, this whole year already,” he says on the NOS cycling podcast. “And last year as well, by the way, although there seemed to be a cause then with the constricted iliac artery. He had surgery for that, and there seems to be nothing standing in the way of reaching his old level again, but he is nowhere near it.”

Jakobsen has won 46 times in his pro career and in his peak years was one of the fastest men on earth. He won a stage in the Tour de France, five stages in the Vuelta a España and the 2022 European Championships. But now he is not even getting to the sprint. “In fact, if he were racing at a lower level now, in elite or under-23 racing, he still would not be getting to sprint,” Dumoulin says. “It is sad.”

Clement also thinks it is a sad story. The former time trialist tries to put the situation into perspective, because perhaps there is more going on with the Picnic PostNL rider. “Maybe he was sent to the Boucles de la Mayenne to get kilometres in, maybe they knew he did not have the level. But that it looks difficult, basically impossible, for the Tour is clear.”

“I like him a lot, and I like watching him as a sprinter,” Dumoulin continues. “I do not know him that well, but I think he is a very nice guy. If he still wants to be a pro, as he has said more than once, I genuinely wish that for him. But as an analyst I also have to be brutally honest on this podcast. He has absolutely no professional level at the moment. No team would be able to take him on. He just does not have the level.”

The Limburger agrees with Clement’s assessment. It is clear that Jakobsen does not have the level. “But that could be due to all kinds of reasons we know nothing about. He could be ill or have a virus; Olav Kooij was out for half a year too. Maybe something like that is going on with Fabio as well, we do not know.” Jakobsen is normally due to start the Copenhagen Sprint on 14 June.