The 24-year-old took another dominant victory on the final stage of the Belgian race.
Visibly ecstatic, Fabio Jakobsen celebrated his 20th pro win in Quaregnon, where the 48th edition of the Tour de Wallonie came to a conclusion after an action-packed day, spiced up by cobbles and a string of short climbs, all inside the final 30 kilometers.
Deceuninck – Quick-Step were in the thick of the action with the likes of Josef Cerny and Florian Sénéchal, who rolled the dice from a fragmented peloton, trying to take advantage of the lack of collaboration between those that had made the selection over the top of Côte du Rossignol, a 600m hill averaging 7.7%. Then, as soon as everything came back together, our team rallied around Fabio Jakobsen and hit the front of the bunch, setting an unmatchable tempo inside the closing kilometers and delivering a faultless lead-out.
Coming off the wheel of a flawless Sénéchal with around 150 meters to go, Jakobsen launched the sprint down the right-side of the road, powering like a locomotive and putting several bike lengths into the riders who rounded out the podium on the way to his second victory of the week.
“I need to thank my teammates, they gave me such a perfect lead-out today and all I had to do was finish it off. Without them this wouldn’t have been possible. They were incredible, brought me in the perfect position with three kilometers to go and kept me there until the moment I opened my sprint. We showed again the fantastic Wolfpack spirit and that’s what made the difference today.”
“I feel I’m becoming better day after day. I am happy with what I achieved this week, I didn’t expect it, but it’s a great result towards La Vuelta, where I look forward to returning after two years. There’s a saying that goes ‘after the rain, comes the sunshine’. Well, now I’m in the sunshine after a long time in the rain and I am extremely happy”, Fabio said after his perfect week.
Photo credit: ©Luc Claessen / Getty Images
