Fabio Jakobsen looking to keep up successful season into Gent-Wevelgem: "That is the next step in my development"

Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team's Fabio Jakobsen has had a storming start to the season after his return to professional cycling last year and he is not looking to stop, as he eyes some of the spring classics to add more quality wins to his palmarès.

"The opening weekend is important for our team, but also for a sprinter, I'm very happy happy with this win. Also because we had a sermon from our boss Patrick Lefevere on Saturday. I won't go into much details about what was discussed there, but it was not a happy conversation. We were confronted with the fact that we were invisible in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. He wanted us to show that we are a team. I don't think we were the team we should be on Saturday. He had imprinted that in our heads with West Flemish words," Jakobsen revealed on a interview with Het Nieuwsblad. After winning two stages at both Volta a Comunitat Valenciana and Volta ao Algarve, the Dutchman has brough his form over to Belgium where he's won Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne in spectacular fashion as the breakaway was caught in sight of the line.

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He detailed the talk Patrick Lefevere had with the team the night before, where Quick-Step were on the backfoot at the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Florian Sénéchal was the best placed rider in ninth: "I don't understand that dialect, but I did understand it. Even I was sitting uncomfortably in my seat, even though I didn't race Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. When Patrick starts talking and it's not the nice way... But that's normal, this is top spot. This is our job, we have to perform. As a Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl you can't be happy with a ninth place. I don't even think we were in the picture during the race. Again, I'm not going to go into detail, but it wasn't nice to be there. Hopefully it won't happen again this season, because it will mean we didn't do well enough."

And being asked on his continuation of success in the classics, Gent-Wevelgem popped up as an obvious goal for him: "Of course the race is a bit longer than Kuurne, but there are not many climbs. I like winning, I like fans, in Gent-Wevelgem there are three or four points where you have to make an effort. We're going to try to stand there, but that is the next step in my development. First I had to check these off, now I can look ahead."

Today, Jakobsen is racing Le Samyn where he is one of the main favourites for the win. He will have more goals to target in Belgium over the spring, but Paris-Nice comes next in the calendar as he is set to go head-to-head with the likes of Wout Van Aert, Jasper Philipsen and Sam Bennett.