Earlier today the Soudal-QuickStep team announced its sprinter Fabio Jakobsen will not continue in the Tour de France 2023. 

The decision to withdraw Jakobsen from the Tour de France comes as a result of Jakobsen’s poor performances in the race.

“Due to the consequences of my stage four crash and after discussions with the team, we have decided it’s better for me to stop my Tour de France journey here, Jakobsen told Roadcycling.com.

“At this point it seems impossible for me to get to Paris as I am not recovering and my body is not healing from the crash,” Jakobsen explained.

“I’m very sad to leave the Grande Boucle, because I had big goals in this race and wanted to be at my best with my team. I will now use some time to recover and clear my head and hopefully be back at my best later this season.”

While Jakobsen won stages in last year’s Tour de France, he crashed heavily in this year’s Tour and has since been struggling on and off his bike to recover and regain form. 

Jakobsen did not perform well in yesterday’s stage 11 sprint finish and has loyally been supported by teammates such as Michael Mørkøv in mountain stages to help him reach the finish line before the time limit. 

Jakobsen’s best result in this year’s Tour is a fourth-place finish in stage 3 to Bayonne. The season this far has brought him stage victories in Tirreno-Adriatico, Tour de Hongrie, Vuelta a San Juan Internacional, and Baloise Belgium Tour.

Jakobsen was involved in a devastating crash in Tour of Poland 2020. He was put in a coma following the incident and suffered brain contusion, skull fractures, broken palate, nerve damage, lung contusions, a bruised shoulder, and a fractured thumb. He also lost ten teeth and parts of his upper and lower jawbones.

Jakobsen is defending European Champion.