How is Fabio Jakobsen doing after he had to abandon the Tour of Bruges on Wednesday?

2025 was a difficult year for Jakobsen, after he was diagnosed with a narrowed iliac artery. At least that explained the disappointing results, and surgery was meant to change that. The rehabilitation that followed took a long time, however, and it started to weigh on the Picnic PostNL sprinter both physically and mentally. On top of that, he then suffered a broken collarbone in a crash in the autumn.

Jakobsen’s first race day of 2026 was therefore encouraging. In the opening stage of the AlUla Tour at the end of January, the rider from Gorinchem was well positioned in the finale, although he could only finish fifteenth in the sprint. Looking back, that would prove to be his best result of the year so far. During the rest of the week in Saudi Arabia, the fast man raced more anonymously.

At the UAE Tour, he came close to matching his best result of the season with sixteenth place in stage 5, although he was also involved in a heavy crash during that race. It still was not the Jakobsen we know from his Vuelta a España stage wins in previous years. The Belgian classics that followed were not a success either.

In the UAE Tour, he came very close to his best result of the year with a 16th-place finish in stage five, although he also took a hard fall during that seven-day race. So he still wasn’t the Jakobsen we know from his stage wins in the Vuelta a España in 2021 and 2020. The Belgian classics so far have also been unsuccessful.

And so IDLProCycling.com headed to the Tour of Bruges to grill the Dutchman at the start. Because how is he actually doing? “Good,” he replied immediately, sounding positive, followed by a nuance. “Better and better. I’m handling the races well and I’m recovering, but I’m not in top form yet.”

“In any case, it’s not like it used to be,” Jakobsen continued before the start of the Belgian WorldTour classic. Still, the upward trend is important. “I can tell there’s progress,” the sprinter noted. For his fans, that offers some hope for what’s still to come this spring classics season.

The Dutch sprinter is set to compete in races like the Scheldeprijs, a race that should naturally suit him well. But whether he can really score there in his current form remains to be seen. That doesn’t seem to be the goal, however, because when we ask him about his goals for this spring, Jakobsen is clear: ‘Finishing the races, continuing to make progress, and making myself useful to my teammates.’

Because, as the Dutchman knows: “The season is still long. I’m showing commitment, and who knows, maybe that will pay off in improved performance.” And then later in the year, when his form is perhaps a bit better, there might be more to come. “Who knows, maybe those guys can return the favor for me as we head into the rest of the year.”

First up on Wednesday was the Tour of Bruges. How did that go? Not how Jakobsen had hoped. The Dutchman ran into trouble early on when the pace suddenly picked up and things got chaotic. He also failed to achieve his goal of finishing the race, as the Picnic sprinter was recorded as a DNF. Another setback, but the season is still long, as Jakobsen himself said.