‘With a normal winter, I can just compete in the sprints again’ - Fabio Jakobsen upbeat about 2026 after difficult season

Fabio Jakobsen’s challenging season saw him sidelined for months after undergoing iliac artery surgery, only to suffer a fractured collarbone in a crash during his comeback at the Renewi Tour in August.

The 29-year-old made a brief return at the Tour of Holland, which his Picnic–PostNL team described on social media as “a chance to race again on home Dutch soil before the end of the season.” After two stages, Jakobsen decided to call it early and focus on recovery ahead of his 2026 campaign.

The collarbone injury, the first of his career, required surgery and an eight-inch plate in his shoulder, as he explained in an interview with In de Leiderstrui.

“It was broken in the middle by two inches, and they had to pull it back because it was broken into five pieces. My left collarbone is basically a plate, and that was seven weeks ago, but when I lie on it, it's still stiff. When I wake up, it's also swollen. So it's still healing,” Jakobsen told IDL.

After a period of rest, Jakobsen plans to resume training next month, using the winter to fully recover and rebuild his strength.

“But I'll be back in training on November 1st, because I think I could use some more volume and intensity to get my engine going again,” he said. "And I have to say I'm really looking forward to it, because it's all taken long enough now," he added.

“With a normal winter, I can just compete in the sprints again, because I feel like I can do it."

He’s targeting an early start to the 2026 season, with plans to race either at the Tour Down Under (January 20–25) in Australia, which would be his debut at the event, or follow a similar schedule to 2025 with the AlUla Tour (January 27–31) in Saudi Arabia and the UAE Tour (February 16–22). Jakobsen earned two top-six finishes at the UAE Tour in 2024 and 2025.