"He is nowhere near a professional-worthy level" - Tom Dumoulin delivers brutal Fabio Jakobsen verdict as career hits rock bottom

Fabio Jakobsen’s latest setback at the Boucles de la Mayenne has drawn a brutally direct assessment from Tom Dumoulin, with the former Giro d’Italia winner warning that the Dutch sprinter is currently falling far short of the level required in the professional peloton.

Jakobsen was the only rider to finish outside the time limit on Saturday’s queen stage, crossing the line almost 33 minutes down on stage winner Benoit Cosnefroy. For a rider who once stood among the fastest pure sprinters in the world, the result was another bleak moment in a decline that has become increasingly difficult to frame as a short-term dip.

The Team Picnic PostNL rider underwent surgery on both iliac arteries last year, raising hope that a clear physical explanation had been found for his struggles since leaving Soudal Quick-Step. Jakobsen had spoken with optimism ahead of the new season, but the results have not followed.

Dumoulin did not hide from the scale of the concern when discussing Jakobsen’s situation on the NOS Wielerpodcast. “He really isn’t moving forward anymore,” he said. “That has actually been the case all year, and last year too. Back then, there still seemed to be a cause. He has had surgery and now there seems to be nothing standing in the way of him reaching his old level. But he is nowhere near it.”

Jakobsen’s fall is especially striking because of where he once stood. The 29-year-old is a six-time Grand Tour stage winner, a former European road race champion and a Tour de France stage winner, with his 2022 victory in Nyborg one of the defining moments of his comeback from the horrific crash he suffered at the 2020 Tour de Pologne.

That version of Jakobsen has not returned. His move to Picnic PostNL was supposed to offer a reset, but his spell with the Dutch team has instead been defined by limited results, medical questions and an increasingly worrying gap to the front of races.

Dumoulin’s assessment was severe, but he framed it with personal sympathy rather than detachment. “In fact, if he were racing at a lower level, among the elite amateurs, he probably still wouldn’t be getting to sprint finishes with this level. That is really sad. I like him and I like watching him as a sprinter. I don’t know him that well, but I think he is a nice guy. If he wants to stay professional, I sincerely hope he can.”

The former Giro d'Italia winner then sharpened the sporting judgement further. “And then I also have to be brutally honest. At the moment, he is nowhere near a professional-worthy level. Maybe he has a virus, but right now no team would sign him, because he cannot cope with the level.”

Jakobsen’s Boucles de la Mayenne exit also appears to have ended any realistic prospect of a Tour de France selection. The final stage towards Laval looked like the one day that could have offered a sprint opportunity, but his time-cut elimination on the previous afternoon meant he was unable to start.

Former pro and NOS analyst Stef Clement urged some caution, noting that Jakobsen himself has not yet explained his condition publicly. But he also pointed to the same pattern across the race, with Jakobsen last in the prologue and unable to feature in the opening sprint stage.

“We haven’t heard anything from Fabio yet, but I also noticed that he was already last in the prologue and that he was nowhere in the first sprint. Frits Biesterbos was the team’s best rider,” Clement said.

For Clement, the question now extends beyond one difficult climbing stage. “I can hardly imagine that he would be selected for a race and only then it becomes clear that he cannot cope with the level. Surely everything is measured there as well? Maybe he is being sent there to get kilometres in his legs, or something. I don’t know, but it is clear that the Tour de France is becoming impossible for Fabio.”

That is the brutal reality around Jakobsen after Mayenne. A queen stage filled with climbs was never his natural terrain, but finishing outside the time limit in a 2.Pro race is a very different problem to simply missing out in a bunch sprint.

His old speed made him one of the most feared finishers in cycling. Right now, the fight is not for victories, but for evidence that he can still get back to the level that once made those victories feel routine.