MUNICH, Germany —
Two years after a near fatal cycling crash
Fabio Jakobsen continued to make up
for lost time on Sunday when he won a hotly-contested sprint for the line at
the European road race championships.
اضافة اعلان
Winner of a stage at the Tour de France in July,
Jakobsen jumped out of Belgian Tim Merlier’s slipstream to clinch victory in
Munich, while Frenchman Arnaud Demare also nipped past Merlier to grab second.
“I’m delighted to be European champion,” said
Jakobsen who lost all his teeth in his infamous crash at the Tour of Poland in
2020.
“I picked up Tim’s slipstream, it was a big
advantage, and that gave me the speed to close the race from 50m out,” Jakobsen
said.
The race featured most of the World Tour elite with
only
Wout van Aert missing from the line up.
The Italian team had seemed well positioned to get
Elia Viviani in the mix, but he could only manage seventh place.
The 25-year-old Jakobsen came close to ending his
career in Poland but has recovered to become one the most feared sprinters in
road cycling.
After winning on his first appearance at the Tour in
July, Jakobsen described it as “like a second life”.
“It’s been a long road for me to get here, if only
you knew,” said Jakobsen, who underwent five hours of surgery the day he
crashed over barriers and hit a metal post head on.
The Quick Step rider was selected for the Tour in
June ahead of British great Mark Cavendish a year after claiming the Vuelta a
Espana sprint points green jersey taking three wins along the way.
“Winning at the Vuelta was what tipped the balance
in my comeback,” Jakobsen said while wearing his European champion jersey on
Sunday.
“I said to myself right you’re back at your top level now,
and I’m happy not to have lost power or strength in that crash in Poland, that
was such a hard fall.”
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