Tour de France 2023: Fabio Jakobsen critical of ‘stupid’ Stage 3 finish, questions Alpecin-Deceuninck tactics

Fabio Jakobsen (Soudal Quick-Step) has slammed the “stupid” Tour de France Stage 3 finish that he felt created a “dangerous” situation for the sprinters.

Jakobsen and his team – having been at the front going into the last 2km – were edged out in the finale by Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck).

And Jakobsen didn’t spare Alpecin from his criticism either, despite admitting that he could see why they rode how they did.

Speaking ahead of Stage 4. Jakobsen said: “You can see on the videos, first [Jonas] Rickaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck) has to go all the way to the right, almost crashes [into] Kasper Asgreen (Soudal Quick-Step).

“Then Mathieu [van der Poel] (Alpecin-Deceuninck) has to go all the way to the left, so that’s cutting the road once.

“And then Jasper Philipsen has to go from left all the way to the right again, to take the shortest way, cutting the road again.

“It’s a bit stupid I think.

“It’s not nice for the race, you get a fight for the positioning, left right, left right.

“We want to see all sprinters at the line. Like this, it’s just dangerous. I understand why they do it, because they win. Probably we would do the same.

“But it’s just not nice for cycling, I think. The parcours builder and the organiser really have to look into this, that on the first bunch sprint like that, when they are so many guys involved – it’s almost not a fair sprint.”

Speaking about today’s finish on a motor-racing circuit in Nogaro, Jakobsen added: “Today looks good. We’ve got a few corners but it’s wide. Last 750m is in a straight line, so if you have the horses and the position, then you can do it.”

Reacting to Jakobsen’s comments were The Breakaway team of Robbie McEwen, Dan Lloyd and Adam Blythe.

“How you feel about how it played out all depends on whether you were the hammer or the nail,” McEwen said.

“And yesterday, Fabio was one of the nails.”

Blythe added: “That bit he highlighted (regarding Asgreen) – that didn’t affect him in the slightest. Not one little bit.

“So it’s kind of like ‘it’s an unfair sprint, riders are doing this, riders are doing that’. Pot kettle black.

“Yves Lampaert (Soudal Quick-Step) almost wiped out the whole peloton, he went left to right on a road.

“How can you possibly comment on something that didn’t affect you?”

Stage 4 is another chance for Jakobsen, record-chasing Mark Cavendish and the other fast men, a flat 182km parcours from Dax to Nogaro.

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