An incredible effort saw the Dutchman make it inside the control time with only 17 seconds to spare.
The first debutant to get a win at this year’s edition of Le Tour, on an opening weekend that saw the Wolfpack rack up a pair of stages, Fabio Jakobsen overcame another huge hurdle, the short but gruelling stage 17. The day had the riders go over Col d’Aspin, Hourquette d’Ancizan and Col de Val Louron-Azet before a finish on Peyragudes, one of the race’s newest ascents, used for the first time in 2012, but climbed from a different side this time.
With the peloton going very fast from the outset, the sprinters had a hard day at the office and were forced to go deep in order to make the time cut at the end of the 129.7km stage. Fortunately, Fabio had his teammates around him until the closing part of the last climb, where he faced gradients kicking up to 16%, but not even these could prevent him from making the time cut in another display of true Wolfpack spirit.
Inside the final kilometer, with the line within sight and frantically cheered on by the rest of the team’s riders and staff, Jakobsen pushed hard and arrived at the top of Peyragudes with just 17 seconds to spare, completely empty and gasping for air, but happy and relieved to have put another tough day behind him.
“Today was full gas from the beginning, a very fast and hard stage that put many on their limits. It wasn’t about calculations, because it was clear it would be tight; today was just about making it, and Fabio did that, which is the most important thing. He showed he has a lot of character and an incredible fighting spirit, which we already knew, and now we hope he recovers and gets over the Hautacam stage so that he has the chance to fight for another victory in Paris”, Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl sports director Tom Steels said.
Photo credit: ©Wout Beel
