Fabio Jakobsen finishes outside the time limit at Boucles de la Mayenne

Things are not going well for Fabio Jakobsen. Since his surgery on a narrowed pelvic artery, the Dutchman has been unsuccessfully searching for his former leg strength. He hoped for improvement at the Boucles de la Mayenne, but Jakobsen was eliminated outside the time limit in Saturday’s queen stage.

On day three of the Boucles de la Mayenne, the queen stage was on the agenda. With a whopping 215 kilometers and at least thirteen serious climbs, the second stage already seemed likely to play an important role in the general classification. Due to the successive ascents of the Côte des 14% (1 km at 5.5%) and Mont des Avaloirs (2.2 km at 6.6%), climbing was inevitable.

It was Benoît Cosnefroy who crossed the line first, ahead of Noa Isidore and Vincenzo Albanese, but the most striking fact was that Fabio Jakobsen failed to make the time cut. The sprinter from Picnic PostNL ran into trouble early on but kept fighting until the finish.

The 29-year-old rider eventually lost just under 33 minutes on stage winner Cosnefroy, but that was not enough to meet the time limit (+31:17). Jakobsen was the only rider to finish outside the time limit. As a result, he will not start the relatively flat final stage of the French race towards Laval.

Final contract year
After two difficult years at Picnic PostNL, Jakobsen hopes to finally approach his former level again in his final contract year, but so far this season has not been his. In 2025, he faced a tough choice: retire because of a narrowed pelvic artery or undergo surgery and hope for a longer career. He chose the latter, but for now the wait continues for the best version of Jakobsen.

“I cannot deny that it has been a tough time with a lot of uncertainty and questions,” he described the last two years in an earlier interview with WielerFlits. “Let’s hope it works. […] My personal goal is to be relevant in finales again. I’ll have to build that up step by step. First, I want to be in the position where I need to be to sprint. After the Scheldeprijs, we will take the first stock.”