A textbook lead-out, a second sprint victory in four days and a points jersey to boot: when Fabio Jakobsen (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) said he would be “delighted” to return to the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana in 2023, there could be no doubting the QuickStep-AlphaVinyl fast man meant exactly what he said.
Jakobsen could not win every sprint in the Valenciana this year after he was boxed in on Saturday’s fraught finish in Torrevieja. But as he sportingly said on Sunday evening, “that’s life and that’s sprinting.”
It also made his final return to the top spot overall after his stage 2 victory in Torrent even more impressive, but in a repeat of Thursday’s dominant performance, on Sunday the Dutchman easily outpowered Italy’s Elia Vivivani (Ineos Grenadiers) and Classics star Alexander Kristoff (Intermarché-Gobert-Materiaux).
Jakobsen had won in Valencia two years ago, too, but that was in the town centre on a much more technical finish. Yet the change of scenario to an outlying avenue in the regions capital seemingly did not matter: once again, the Dutchman ruled supreme.
“I really cannot complain, yesterday (Saturday) I got boxed in but that’s life and that’s sprinting. You cannot always win. It’s nice to win twice and go home with the points jersey as well,” Jakobsen said.
The Dutchman said his 27th career win had crowned a massive team effort, including - for a third time in Valencia - some hard work in the final kilometres by Remco Evenepoel.
“He’s a special kid,” Jakobsen said of his Belgian teammate who played his role for the Dutchman despite having a second place overall to defend as well. “He’s like a little brother to me. We have a special bond. Him helping me says a lot about him. He’s a perfect teammate and look forward to racing with him together.”
But Jakobsen insisted he had to namecheck all the teammates who had played a part in his second victory of the season on Sunday, and the third for QuickStep-AlphaVinyl in the race.
“Joseph Czerny from the beginning, then Mattia Cattaneo and after that Remco showed his legs and his form today, even in the lead-out he’s important to us and specially to me even though were missing Mikkel Honore.”
“[Yves] Lampaert put [lead-out man Michael] Morkov in the perfect position and we all know he is one of the best at what he does. I only had to sprint 150 metres and I’m super happy I could stay in the lead and take the win for the team.”
Jakobsen said that he would have no doubt about returning to Valenciana in the years to come, describing it as the ideal preparation race for the Classics.
“It’s been a very nice race, we were lucky with the weather because the first three days were hard.
“We had power numbers and heart rates for a one-day race in the first three stages, day after day after day. It was like a training block.
“But everybody comes here to prepare their season and improve, and yesterday’s sprint stage was also nice and today we went full gas for two hours as well.”
While Jakobsen will go onto the Volta ao Algarve in ten days time and then race Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, the Dutchman says that after racing in the Vuelta a España last September, (where he took three stages and the points jersey), he’s already ahead in his game compared to two years ago when he last raced Valenciana.
“If you do the Vuelta and then have a good winter, you can really feel the form building and building. Two years ago I won here already but then of course we had the pandemic and a break in the season. I am feeling on the same level as I was then, or maybe a little bit better.”
