• After Yves Lampaert on Friday, it was Fabio Jakobsen who won the Tour de France on Saturday.

  • The Quick-Step can consider a three out of three in the Danish stages with a probable mass sprint on Sunday.

  • The Belgian team had been widely criticized for choosing not to retain Julian Alaphilippe and Mark Cavendish.

To be honest, we had planned to talk to you after this 2nd stage of the Tour de France about the spectacle produced on the long Great Belt bridge.

These 17 terminals between the Danish islands of Seeland and Funen promised borders and therefore, potential surprises on arrival.

And then pschitt...

“The bridge scared everyone.

Finally it gave birth to a mouse because the wind was badly placed to be able to cause curbs”, noted Alain Deloeil, sports director of Cofidis.

“To be honest, it was rather boring,” summed up Wout van Aert very well, with the yellow jersey he had been running behind for so long on his back.

A leader's overcoat recovered thanks to bonuses by the Belgian from Jumbo-Visma, still second behind a Quick-Step runner.

A debut sprint win for 🇳🇱 @FabioJakobsen on the #TDF2022 in a tightly contested finale!



Here's the final KM 🎬



For his debut on the Tour 🇳🇱 @FabioJakobsen wins after a contested sprint!



Find the last KM 🎬 pic.twitter.com/8oSB3ysup4

— Tour de France™ (@LeTour) July 2, 2022


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Friday, during the inaugural time trial in Copenhagen, it was his compatriot Yves Lampaert who came out of the shadows to grill him by 5 seconds.

This Saturday, it was Fabio Jakobsen who beat him in the sprint at Nyborg, after avoiding a massive fall 3 km from the finish, without too many injuries even if Tadej Pogacar reached the line with both flat tires.

Jakobsen, the miracle

The 25-year-old Dutchman shone from his first on the Big Loop, when he had been close to death less than two years ago, on August 5, 2020 on the Tour of Poland, during a fall in Katowice which freezes the blood just thinking about it.

Several surgeries and an iron will allowed Jakobsen to return to competition in April 2021, then to chain victories in the sprint (already 11 this year).

While rubbing as if the past and the future did not exist, like the duel of the day with Peter Sagan: “I come back from very far.

Those who know me know all the sacrifices I made, it's not for nothing.

The team put me in a good position up front, Morkov put me in van Aert's wheel.

»

Absences that had made people talk

Exactly the team.

Patrick Lefevere must still be smirking as you read these lines.

The Quick-Step manager had his ears whistling when he left home Julian Alaphilippe, recovering, and veteran Mark Cavendish (37) to whom Jakobsen was preferred.

Even Christian Prudhomme was moved on Monday on RMC by the choices of the Belgian team.

“There will be neither the world champion [Alaphilippe], nor the champion of France [Florian Sénéchal, finally “drafted” in place of Covidé Tim Declercq], nor the British champion.

A youngster, a certain Mark Cavendish with 34 stage victories on the Tour, a Merckx record equaled last year.

They did quite well in the selection, it must be recognized.

»

Indeed, “they did quite a lot”, but without irony.

And the pass of three seems completely within the ropes of the Quick-Step with the massive sprint which is looming on Sunday between Velje and Sonderborg, for the last stage in Denmark before returning to France.

Unless the Covid-19 invites itself again.

The Belgian formation has already lost two sports directors, since Tom Steels joined Friday Merijn Zeeman on the list of contaminated.

Tour de France 2022: The sprint for Fabio Jakobsen, the yellow jersey for Wout Van Aert… Relive the second stage live


… The 2nd stage to follow live

Sport

Tour de France 2022: Tadej Pogacar already on fire and gone to ruin the morale of the troops from the first week?

  • Sport

  • Cycling

  • Tour de France 2022

  • QuickStep

  • Mark Cavendish

  • Julian Alaphilippe

  • Denmark