Picnic PostNL calls possible Fabio Jakobsen move to Visma | Lease a Bike ‘special’ and ‘strange’

Picnic PostNL has responded through sports director Rudie Kemna to the immediate departure of Fabio Jakobsen. The Dutch sprinter was still under contract until the end of the 2026 season, but he will not complete that agreement. After a disappointing spell together, Picnic PostNL simply saw little value in continuing the partnership for another half-season.

That Jakobsen had been struggling at Picnic PostNL for some time was already well known. The once-dominant sprinter has battled physical problems and has consequently been unable to rediscover his very best form. Even so, almost nobody expected him to leave Picnic PostNL with immediate effect, let alone make a potential move to Visma | Lease a Bike.

“Unfortunately, it did not turn out the way we had hoped,” Jakobsen said about his time with Picnic PostNL. He identified the iliac artery surgery he underwent in 2025 as one possible reason he was constantly trying to make up lost ground. “There is a lot of work to be done. The past six months have not exactly been brilliant. They have actually been disappointing.”

Visma | Lease a Bike and Jakobsen began discussing a possible move for 2027 some time ago, although there is now a chance that the transfer could happen earlier. “They see it as a project. We still have to reach an agreement, though. That is what we are working on,” Jakobsen’s camp explained. Until now, Picnic PostNL had not publicly addressed the situation.

In a conversation with sports director Kemna on Wednesday, cycling journalist Daniel Benson published comments from the Dutch team on Wednesday. “We had a three-year contract with Fabio, and it’s clear that we expected more from it and the results weren’t coming as we expected.” Kemna said it had therefore become clear that the team would not continue with Jakobsen after the end of the season.

Jakobsen was informed of that decision and subsequently entered discussions with the team about ending his contract before its scheduled expiry at the end of 2026. Those talks resulted in an agreement. Asked why Jakobsen had suffered such a dramatic loss of form, Kemna said there could be several explanations. “From a health perspective, we did not do anything wrong. We used all our experience and knowledge in that area. It simply was not the right fit.”

“It was not the level we expected, and all of us share responsibility for that. During our time together, we did not see the great sprinter Fabio Jakobsen, and there were no major results. I cannot say exactly why, because we had a good working relationship. We could discuss everything, but ultimately that also has to produce results, or at least allow you to compete in race finales.”

Kemna felt that the latter had been particularly absent over the final months of Jakobsen’s time with the team. Picnic PostNL tried several different approaches, but the sprinter recorded a relatively high number of DNFs in 2026. “We often saw that he could not follow the peloton. He was unable to stay with the group when a sprint was approaching in the finale. The big question is why that happened. There is also a mental aspect, and that starts with Fabio, but it also involves us.”

The possibility that Jakobsen could join Visma | Lease a Bike before the end of this season was not something Kemna had anticipated. “That is a major surprise to me, but it is his decision. I did not know he might go there in August, although it does not change anything for us. It is special and strange. After we had agreed on a date to go our separate ways, I did not expect him to move to Visma.”