Fabio Jakobsen strikes gold for Netherlands in elite men’s road race at European Championships

Fabio Jakobsen (Netherlands) came out on top of a thrilling mass sprint to take gold in the elite men’s road race at the European Championships in Munich on Saturday.

The 25-year-old got his nose in front at the finish line to edge Arnaud Demare (France) and Tim Merlier (Belgium), who took silver and bronze respectively.

It was Jakobsen’s 12th victory of the season and marked the first Dutch title in the European men’s road race in the modern era.

“We don’t race together much as team-mates, but we made a good plan and everybody did his work and put in a huge effort to put me in position,” Jakobsen said.

“Danny van Poppel did an incredible job putting me with speed at the wheel of Merlier and I could come from his slipstream and pass.

“We had a really strong team to control this race and we saw the race was under control so we decided to move up just two laps from the end and then we were in position and the team kept me there until the final corner.

“Van Poppel really did an amazing job and showed he’s one of the best leadout men out there.”

Italy led out the sprint with 1.5km remaining and were in front going into the finishing straight.

But the group bunched up for the final charge and Merlier led the way with metres remaining, only for Jakobsen and Demare to catch him on the line.

Jakobsen’s team-mate Van Poppel was fourth, with Sam Bennett (Ireland) completing the top five.

The Netherlands’ gold medal tally now stands at four and their total medal haul at 15 midway through day four of the European Championships, putting them sixth overall.

Great Britain sit top of the standings with seven golds, one more than Italy and Germany in second and third respectively.