Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal Quick-Step) withdrew from the Tour de France ahead of today’s stage. Jakobsen took a traumatic fall at the end of Stage 4, in the racetrack segment of Nogaro, and hasn’t been able to bounce back. Jakobsen had hoped to be a rival sprinter to Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin–Deceuninck), who has already taken four stage wins.
Soudal Quick-Step issued a statement in which Jakobsen said, “Due to my stage four crash, and after discussions with the team, we decided it’s better for me to stop my Tour de France journey here. At this point it seems impossible for me to get to Paris, as I am not recovering, and my body is not healing from the crash.”
The 26-year-old rider went on, “I’m very sad to leave the Grande Boucle, because I had big goals for this race and wanted to be at my best with the team. I will now take some time to recover and clear my head, and hopefully be back at my best later this season.”
Jakobsen is also expected to leave his current team at the end of this season. CyclingNews reported that his departure from Soudal-QuickStep with a move to DSM-Firmenich is highly likely.
Jakobsen gained some public notoriety as one of the riders in the Netflix series Tour de France: Unchained. The series recalled Jakobsen’s horrible crash at the 2020 Tour of Poland that put him in an induced coma. Jakobsen miraculously recovered from his numerous injuries and was racing just 8 months later.
In last year’s tour, Jakobsen took one stage victory and was hoping to add to his tally this year, but just hasn’t been able to ride the way he wants to. Jakobsen’s departure leaves Soudal Quick-Step with 7 riders: Julian Alaphilippe, Kasper Asgreen, Yves Lampaert, Remi Cavagna, Tim Declercq, Michael Morkov, and Dries Devenyns.
Micah Ling is a freelance writer who lives in the mountains of Colorado. She splits her free time between mountain biking and trail running.
