Fabio Jakobsen (not pictured) was sent flying into the side barriers after a collision with Dylan Groenewegen (left). Photo / Getty Images
Fabio Jakobsen (not pictured) was sent flying into the side barriers after a collision with Dylan Groenewegen (left). Photo / Getty Images
Dutch cyclist Fabio Jakobsen was put into an induced coma after sustaining head and chest injuries in a crash on the final stretch of the Tour de Pologne race in southern Poland.
Sprinting for the win at the end of the event's opening stage, Jakobsen was sent flying into theside barriers after a collision with fellow Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen.
The 23-year-old Jakobsen, who races for the Deceuninck-Quick-Step team and has won two stages of the Vuelta a Espana in his promising career, was airlifted to a hospital in serious condition and was put into an induced coma.
Doctor Pawel Gruenpeter of the hospital in Sosnowiec said Jakobsen suffered injuries to the head and chest but that his condition was stable at the intensive care unit. Jakobsen will need surgery to his face and skull, Gruenpeter told state broadcaster TVP Sport.
"Fabio Jakobsen's situation is serious but at the moment he is stable," Deceuninck-Quick-Step later added in a statement.
"A diagnostic test didn't reveal brain or spinal injuries, but because of the gravity of his multiple injuries he is still kept in a comatose condition and has to remain closely monitored in the following days at the Wojewódzki Szpital in Katowice."
Race director Czeslaw Lang blamed Groenewegen for the crash, saying the rider's actions were "not fair play."
"Groenewegen changed his trajectory, was pressing Jakobsen to the right side and on top of that stuck out his elbow. You don't do that," said Lang, who took silver in the 1980 Olympic road race for Poland.
Fabio Jakobsen was sent flying into the side barriers.
The race also came in for criticism, with the downhill nature of the finishing sprint – which saw Luka Mezgec reach 82km/h when winning the stage in 2019 – classed as being dangerous by many observers.
Jakobsen was named the winner of the opening stage and Groenewegen was disqualified following the crash, in which a referee and some other cyclists were also injured.
The crash, which happened in the southern city of Katowice, took place exactly a year after Belgian cyclist Bjorg Lambrecht died in the hospital from injuries he sustained when he crashed into a concrete barrier during the third stage of the 76th edition of the Tour de Pologne.
Elsewhere this morning, Deceuninck-Quick-Step also saw standout rider Yves Lampaert suffer a broken collarbone after crashing into a traffic island in the final kilometres of the Milano-Torino race in Italy. Frenchman Arnaud Demare won the race, with Kiwi Dion Smith finishing in ninth.
