Fabio Jakobsen suffers setback in his return to racing with broken collarbone after crash at the Renewi Tour

A difficult season for Fabio Jakobsen has been compounded with yet more bad luck, after suffering a broken collarbone in a crash early on stage 3 of the Renewi Tour. After being forced to abandon he visited a local hospital in Belgium, where he underwent surgery on Friday night.

The Dutchman had already been sidelined for most of the season after undergoing iliac artery surgery at the start of April, which forced him to miss most of the Spring Classics and ruled him out of participating in any of the Grand Tours this season.

Having not raced since late March, Jakobsen made his comeback at the Tour of Denmark last week, but abandoned the race after just two stages, indicating that he was understandably lacking fitness after such a long stint away from racing.

However, these first few races back were always about building up strength ahead of the latter part of the season. In a press release by Picnic PostNL on Saturday, team doctor Camiel Aldershof stated that “Fabio’s return to racing was going well and he was making the steps that we expected.”

Issuing an update on Jakobsen’s condition and the recovery process that will follow, Aldershof went on to say “he underwent surgery last night, which went well, and will now focus on his recovery in the next few days, before we then look to a plan for him to get back to full training.”

Also speaking in the press release, Jakobsen said “I was really enjoying being back with the team on the road and doing what I enjoy the most - racing my bike. This is of course a setback, but hopefully I can be back training soon and from there we will make a plan for any upcoming races.”

The 28-year-old sprinter is expected to return before the end of the season and is currently on the provisional startlist for the Tour de Langkawi in late September.