"Fabio has a good prognosis for a return, but the recovery may take some time." Fabio Jakobsen successfully underwent surgery

Fabio Jakobsen's burden was hopfeully lifted after a surgery on his narrowed pelvic arteries. Team Picnic PostNL could definitely use some good news after they spent the past weeks in the corner where blows were falling.

Jakobsen rode to some top-10 results in the early months of 2025, but at his latest start at Classic Brugge - De Panne he got off the bike after just a few kilometers into the race.

"During the races early in the season, however, it appeared that he could no longer push the pedals as powerfully as before in the crucial, high-intensity moments. After further examinations with the team's medical staff, it was determined that Jakobsen has a flow limitation in the iliac arteries in both legs," announced his team on March 31.

"This is a disappointment mentally, but now that we have found the cause, I am hopeful that surgery can resolve it. Sometimes you have to take a step back to take two steps forward, and I hope that is the case for me now," said Jakobsen, who has since announced that the surgery went well. "Now, I will take a few weeks of complete rest to let everything heal inside and out, and then I will focus on my recovery."

According to his team doctor, he can make a full recovery. "Fortunately, given the type of injury, Fabio has a good prognosis for a return, but the recovery may take some time."  

Although XDS Astana slowed down a bit after the spectacular entrance to the season, the Kazakh-Chinese formation continues to close to gap to Team Picnic PostNL. Currently there's only 1700 points between the two WorldTour formations who seem to be the main protagonists of the on-going relegation battle. However Cofidis 200 points ahead of Picnic PostNL and Uno-X at same points as XDS Astana could too play an important role.

The Dutch team will be more than happy to re-discover the top sprinter in Jakobsen and see him win some races which would naturally come with plenty UCI points.