Fabio Jakobsen (dsm-firmenich-PostNL) took his first win of 2024 at the Presidential Tour of Turkey in Antalya, where the Belgian rider beat Sasha Weemaes (Bingoal WB) into second place with Simon Dehairs (Alpecin-Deceuninck) claiming third.
The Tour of Turkey has been heavily anticipated as a test of form for a returning Mark Cavendish, and Astana-Qazaqstan were dominant at the front of the peloton in the final kilometres alongside Alpecin-Pimapen - the temporarily renamed Alpecin-Deceuninck for the duration of the Tour of Turkey.
However, Mark Cavendish was distanced from the front of the sprint and boxed in within the final few hundred metres, as Alpecin-Pimapen inadvertently positioned Fabio Jakobsen for a perfect sprint into the finish line.
Jakobsen stretched out a relatively easy lead over Belgian sprinter Sasha Weemaes, while Alpecin-Pimapen’s Simon Dehairs took third.
The 134.7km stage from Antalya to Antalya was a relatively orderly day for the sprinters from the outset. The early kilometres saw a breakaway form consisting of Marcel Camprubí (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Jambaljamts Sainbayar (Burgos - BH), Filippo Ridolfo (Novo Nordisk), Julian Borresch (REMBE Pro Cycling Team Sauerland), Aljaz Turk (Adria Mobil), Tomasz Budzinski (Mazowsze Serce Polski) and Emre Yuca (Sakarya BB).
The seven riders enjoyed a leading margin of several minutes through the middle of the race but were pulled in with 21km remaining, allowing the sprint teams to coordinate their lead-out trains.
“Today, we managed to stay together in a hectic final, and everybody helped me really well, especially Bram [Welten] and Toby [Andresen] at the end,” Jakobsen said after the race finished.
“I am standing here as a happy guy to take the win for the team.”
Asked whether he was confident ahead of the race, Jakobsen said, “You never know for sure, but we always give 100%, and I did a good training camp after the start of the season in Spain to really prepare myself for this race and also towards the Giro d'Italia.”
Jakobsen reflected on the significance of the race to him. “It's just a really special race. I remember the first win I took here was against this and Bennett and Cavendish, who back then were the best printers in the world. And then this was my first race back together with Mark Cavendish after the crash in Poland.
“It’s nice to be back here again.”
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