NAfter the serious fall of the Dutch professional cyclist Fabio Jakobsen on the Tour of Poland, another rider had an accident. The French professional cyclist Mickael Delage from the Groupama-FDJ team was flown to a hospital after a fall with the rescue helicopter, said a spokesman for the organizers of the race for the German Press Agency in Warsaw on Friday. “He is conscious, his life is not in danger.” Nothing is known about the exact course of the accident. “The bike got out of hand for him, he fell.”
On Wednesday, the Dutchman Jakobsen crashed into the barriers in the finish sprint of the first stage at high speed and remained motionless. The 23-year-old had been pushed away by his compatriot Dylan Groenewegen. After a five-hour operation, Jakobsen was placed in an artificial coma. He is now conscious again and is no longer artificially ventilated, as the hospital announced.
Security debate broke out
Jakobsen’s horror accident is still having an impact on cycling. Answers are being sought in a new security debate. “Why does something bad always have to happen before things change, the UCI intervenes and says: ‘Now we really have to change something.’”, Asked the German professional cyclist Nikias Arndt in an interview with the sports information service (Sid). The 28-year-old will hold the German-licensed Team Sunweb together as the “Road Captain” for the cycling classic Milan-Sanremo, which starts this Saturday. Of course, the fatal events in Katowice did not escape him.
He knows the downhill sprint to the finish on which Jakobsen was pushed into the barricades by his compatriot Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma) at around 80 km / h. And he knows the risk that is part of his job. “Falls are part of cycling. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to get rid of them, ”said Arndt. But the damage can be limited.
Discussions about this are not new. It wasn’t long ago that the debate about the number of escort bikes after a fatal accident kept the peloton in suspense. Now the barriers, through which Jakobsen crashed, come into focus as the weak point in the security system.
The drivers’ union CPA demanded that the UCI comply with standards, and Arndt also spoke out in favor of setting these as high as possible. At the same time, however, the 28-year-old made everyone involved responsible: “It is the responsibility of each individual, by which I mean the UCI, the organizers, the CPA, the teams and the drivers, to make a small contribution to the number and also to minimize the severity of the falls. “
Julian Alaphilippe expressed himself similarly. The Frenchman starts at Milan-Sanremo as defending champion and is Jakobsen’s team-mate at Deceuninck-Quick Step. It is also about the behavior of the drivers, “the mentality has to change. But also the CPA and the organizers – there is a lot to do, ”said Alaphilippe.
The 28-year-old is one of the most prominent starters and is a contender for success alongside former winners such as Vincenzo Nibali (2018) and Michal Kwiatkowski (2017). When Alaphilippe fights for victory on Saturday, Fabio Jakobsen accompanies him in his thoughts: “Fabio is fighting a lot right now. We have to fight for him. “
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