Jakobsen repeats in Scheldeprijs

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Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) punched his chest and then the air as he dashed across the finish line with the victory at the mid-week classic Scheldeprijs in Schoten. The 22-year-old Dutchman keyed off of a perfectly timed lead-out to take a repeat win ahead of Max Walscheid (Team Sunweb) and Chris Lawless (Team Sky).

Deceunink-QuickStep hit the front and dragged the field under the kilometre banner and through the final corners of the race. While Jakobsen surfed the front of top sprinters, his teammate Michael Mørkøv offered one last surge as his final lead-out man.

Marco Haller (Katusha-Alpecin) jumped a little too early and was caught and passed by a faster Lawless, and then Walscheid. A patient Jakobsen bided his time and then accelerated off of Walscheid's wheel, with what was the fastest sprint, passing both the Sunweb rider and then Lawless to take a convincing victory.

How it unfolded

It was a sunny morning in Terneuzen [Netherlands] when the riders signed on at the market square for the 107th edition of the Scheldeprijs. Ever since starting in Terneuzen, the wind has often been a crucial factor in the first part of the race.

This year, the wind from the northeast would result in a headwind start, followed after about 30km by an endless cross-wind section, until reaching the two local laps of 17km. It made for a much harder race than in previous years.

After a 15km roll-out that passed through the 6.6km Western Scheldt Tunnel, the race kicked off straight away. Kenneth Vanbilsen (Cofidis) and Tom Wirtgen (Wallonie-Bruxelles) were the first attackers, anticipating the fight in the echelons. The duo was quickly caught back by a first echelon when the race reached the former North Beveland island.

By the time the riders completed the first hour of racing, 47 kilometres were covered. There were several groups up the road, with the first one including 35 riders. They battled against a second large group that trailed them by 30 seconds. While a third group was losing ground and they trailed by more than a minute.

The first groups came back together as the pace dropped toward the 60km mark of the race. The riders from EF Education First seemed motivated and upped the pace again when approaching Goes.

Bora-Hansgrohe was well represented in the first group with their sprinter Pascal Ackermann, but also among the front were Nils Politt (Katusha), Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo), Taylor Phinney (EF Education First), Lawrence Naesen and Nikolas Maes (both Lotto-Soudal), and Chris Lawless and Gianni Moscon (both Team Sky).

A second group with many Deceuninck-QuickStep riders worked hard to bring back the leaders. But after 80km of racing, there were eight groups of riders spread out over the course, with the first group distancing the last group by nearly four minutes.

At the feed zone, 100km into the race, the pace dropped back again, and Dries De Bondt (Corendon-Circus) and Brian van Goethem (Lotto-Soudal) tried their luck. The duo collected an advantage of nearly a minute until the pace upped again and the leaders were caught back. Defending champion Jakobsen and last year's runner-up Achermann were victims of a crash. And only after 135km of racing, when approaching Belgium, the wind battles were over and the peloton was back together.

The main question was how much had those efforts taken their toll on the sprinters such as five-time winner Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin), who had been struggling all day.

Vanbilsen and De Bondt attacked to get some publicity in the final hours of racing. When reaching the two final laps, the duo was 1:15 ahead of the peloton, but by the time they hit the last lap their adventure was over.

Still too early to begin their lead-outs, the field spread wide across the road, riders jockeying for the front positions while still conserving some energy before crucial final kilometres.

A crash among the field took down some of the Katusha-Alpecin riders including Kittel, while simultaneously Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) jumped from the field. Lionel Taminiaux (Wallonie Bruxelles) bridged across but then struggled to stay on the Norwegian's wheel and eventually popped and drifted back to the main field.

Deceuninck-QuickStep were the first team to start the lead-out, drawing in Boasson Hagen and keeping the speeds fast enough to deter any late-race attacks. They provided the perfect set up for Jakobsen, who proved to be unrivalled in the final sprint as he claimed his second consecutive win.

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