Cycling, Jakobsen undergoes surgery for double occlusion of iliac arteries

Rome, 3 April 2025 - There is no peace for Fabio Jacobsen: after a 2024 complicated by a never-before-seen physical condition and a few extra pounds that are difficult to shed, the Dutchman is forced to open this season in the worst possible way due to an operation on both iliac arteries.  

Jakobsen's statements

  The runner's stop Team Picnic PostNL should be around a month and a half, thus postponing the return to racing until the height of summer. But first he will have to find the right form, and the long wait before returning to the saddle does not leave good hopes for the summer season either. The fact is that there was no choice, because the in-depth tests had revealed a problem with the blood flow to both legs. What had alarmed his team were the pale results collected in the very first events of the year despite a winter preparation that apparently slipped by without a hitch. The one who best explained the situation was Jacobsen, ready despite everything to overcome this latest setback that has occurred during his career. "This winter I trained well and I approached this season with a fair amount of confidence. We achieved some top 10 placings in theUAE Tours and Paris-Nice, but when it came to the key moments, like during the very high intensity sprints, I suffered: my legs simply weren't working as they should have". Hence the hunt for the root cause of the bitter discovery that also weighed on a runner who had been through everything: above all the fight between life and death after the terrible fall that occurred at Tour of Poland 2020. "Mentally it was a bad blow, but now that we have found the cause of the problem, I hope that the surgery can solve it. Sometimes you have to take a step back to take two steps forward and I - he concludes Jacobsen - I hope this is exactly what can happen."

The other injured

  Not that in cycling the saying 'misery loves company' applies, but the former European champion is not the only rider to have ended up in the pits recently. The 'massacre' at home Soudal Quick Step the new purchase also strikes Valentin Paret Peintre, who stops due to a fractured coccyx: the teammate Dries Van Gestel he has already undergone surgery on his left scaphoid. Not only that Jacobsen: the other tile of the house Team Picnic PostNL is called Nils Eekhoff, who at the beginning of the year had fractured his jaw and is now back in the infirmary with an injury that is not common in cycling, a torn calf that is unlikely to return for the Tour of Flanders, but maybe yes for the Paris-Roubaix. The most thorny and almost mysterious case is that of Arnaud De Lie, who took a break due to excessive tiredness. His Lotto Cycling Team he has accepted the situation (not without sparing criticism of his own rider, especially in terms of communication and commitment), but the Belgian's collaboration with an external coach is currently the subject of a review that seems like a prelude to a divorce.

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