TEACH YOUR CHILDREN WELL
There was a beautiful moment during the closing ceremony of the recent Vuelta a España. Fabio Jakobsen stepped onto the podium, before the impressive façade of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Bike in hand, his machine sprayed the same colour as the jersey that hung over his shoulder. The Dutch sprinter had won the green jersey and he received loud applause from the gathered fans.
His confirmation as the best sprinter in the Vuelta came 396 days after his terrible crash at the Tour de Pologne in August 2020. Jakobsen narrowly escaped death, and after a rehabilitation process that took months, he first got back to being a functioning person again and finally back as a pro cyclist. He showed he was fully back at world class level at the Vuelta. With stage wins in Molina de Aragón, La Manga del Mar Menor and Santa Cruz de Bezana he regained his position as one of the best sprinters in the peloton. It was an impressive comeback, giving cycling fans around the world goosebumps and which commanded nothing other than respect and admiration within and beyond cycling.
Jakobsen’s triumph was a personal one. But beyond that important aspect of his achievement, it was also a triumph for the Netherlands. Exactly 10 years after Bauke Mollema, once again a Dutchman was awarded the Vuelta’s points jersey.
In recent years, Dutch cycling fans have again become accustomed to the sight of their compatriots winning big races. It was a different story a decade ago. Mollema’s 2011 Vuelta points jersey was a rare highlight in a period of significant drought for Dutch cycling. Wins were rare, especially in the most important races. There were even years when there were no wins at all in the three major tours. The most painful was the absence of success at the Tour de France. Pieter Weening’s Tour stage win in 2005 – by a millimetre ahead of Andreas Klöden in Gérardmer – was followed by eight winless Tours for the Dutch. Even in the Giro and the Vuelta the takings were meagre; between 2005 and 2013 there were three stage wins in total.
They were tough seasons. The generation of Erik Dekker and Michael Boogerd, the men who were well-known faces for Dutch cycling in the years before and after 2000, had retired and the new generation wasn’t yet mature enough to compete to win in the
