Fabio Jakobsen took an emotional win just over a year after the Deceuninck-Quick Step sprinter was involved in a life-threatening crash at the Tour of Poland.
Following his crash at the Tour of Poland that resulted in the Dutchman being placed in an induced coma having broke almost all of the bones in his face and losing all of his teeth, Jakobsen completed his comeback to the top tier of the sport with the win in Molina de Aragón after also taking two stages at the recent Tour de Wallonie.
“This is a dream,” Jakobsen said. “I want to thank my family and the team, my second family, because they are the reason I am here. It’s the most beautiful victory of my career and I can’t thank everybody enough for what they did for me. It’s been a long road since last year, and to be here, a grand tour stage winner again, makes me incredibly happy.”
Trailing Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) with 200 metres to go, the Deceuninck-Quick Step sprinter timed his move to perfection before surging towards the third Vuelta stage of his career, a result that saw the 24-year-old take hold of the green jersey as the new leader in the points classification.
“The finale was hectic, as it always happens when you have a bunch sprint,” he added. “I feel that after this win my comeback is complete and the circle is now closed after everything that happened last year. I feel great, I am at a good level and I’m happy to be here with the team and have the green jersey, which I will try to keep for as long as possible.”
Rein Taaramae (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) kept the leader’s jersey despite being involved in a late crash. Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo) trails by 25sec and defending champion Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) is 30sec down in third.