Fabio Jakobsen (Netherlands) has won the Elite Road European Champion title today in Munich (Germany).
The strong Dutch sprinter rode to victory after a closely fought sprint beating the French rider Arnaud Demare, also second in the 2020 European Championships, and the Belgian Tim Merlier finished in third place.
The race, which started in Murnau am Staffelsee, was full of action right from the beginning. At the start proper Silvan Dillier (Switzerland) and Lukas Pöstlberger (Austria) broke away from the peloton of 142 competitors and immediately worked together to gain a lead of 2'50" on the pack, constantly controlled by riders from the Netherlands, Italy and Belgium.
In the final stages with five laps of the spectacular city circuit in the centre of the Bavarian capital, the peloton reduced the gap and caught up the two leaders twenty-seven kilometres from the finish.
In the last few kilometres of the race, the pace was extremely fast and the peloton left no room for any attack, until three kilometres from the finish when the Swiss Stefan Bissegger made a surprise breakaway.
The Italians managed to catch up the Swiss rider but in the final sprint, Jakobsen, placed in perfect position by his team, crossed the line ahead of Demare and Merlier.
This was the twelfth win of the season by Fabio Jakobsen, born in 1996.
The Road European Championships in Munich will resume on Wednesday 17 August with the Time-Trial races and finish next Sunday (21 August) with the Women’s Road race.
Results - click here
