FAbio Jakobsen stood wet in the finish area of Molina de Aragon, overwhelmed by sheer happiness. From the happiness of a survivor to a returnee who is now a champion again. 377 days later, his life almost ended on the Polish pitch and a cruel suffering began. The Dutch professional cyclist won the fourth stage of the Vuelta championship. In one of the massive sprints in which he almost died. This is simply a miracle.
“That was the best victory of my career. It’s all like a dream,” said the 24-year-old player. “Now it feels like a circle is back to square one. It’s like after everything that happened last year. The return of is complete. This is a long journey. It makes me very happy to be here as the winner of the Grand Tour.”
Of course, Jacobson was very happy that he was at large on August 5, 2020. At that time, the Quick-Step professional athlete was hit by compatriot Dylan Groenewegen on the railing during the finish sprint of the Tour of Poland. “In this dark phase, I am worried that I will not survive,” Jacobson said.
Even today, after countless plastic surgeries, the consequences of the fall are still visible. His face with 130 stitches looked a little unnatural, because the accident caused his vocal cords to be paralyzed and his language was a little unclear. The new jaw is modeled after Jacobson’s pelvic bone and still contains temporary artificial teeth.
Jacobson could have been content to get as close as possible to the coffin or at least the wheelchair. not him. Less than six months after the accident, he resumed training, participated in his first race on the Turkish Tour in April, and won the Tour of Wallonia for the first time in July. Since winning the Tour de Marseille for the third time in his career, he has once again become one of the best sprinters in the world.
In fact, the fact that Jacobson was mentally able to participate in the arduous task of a massive sprint that almost cost his life, and that every retreat has to pay a chance of victory, this fact is perhaps the most surprising of. “Of course the final is very tense,” he said after winning the Tour of Europe, shrugging his shoulders, “but it is always the case in large-scale sprints.”
