Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) celebrated his 25th birthday with a special gift, winning stage 16 of the Vuelta a Espana 2021 cycling tournament to help the green jersey.
Stage 16 of the Vuelta a Espana tournament in 2021 was soon identified as the stage of the “children of the wind” with a route of 180km but only a small pass from Laredo to Santa Cruz de Bezana.
However, chaos soon ensues when an accident causes many riders to fall, including high-ranking contenders such as Enric Mas (Movistar) and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis). Despite trying to return, Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) eventually gave up because the chain cut his right knee.
There is also Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) and Sep Vanmarcke (Israel Start-Up Nation) who have to part ways early with the race.
The chaos created opportunities for five riders Stan Dewulf (AG2R-Citroën), Mikel Bizkarra (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Dimitri Claeys (Qhubeka NextHash), Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) and Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH) to fast. quickly escaped with a gap of 2 minutes in the first hour of the game.
The distance was maintained stably before the start of the change when the race team entered the foothills of the Alto de Hijas pass, the only pass in this stage 106.2km from the starting point. The UAE Emirates racers pulled hard to close the gap with the leading drivers, which inadvertently caused the green Jakobsen shirt to be dropped from the crowd.
However, the Deceuninck-Quickstep team backed off nearly 30 seconds to wait for Jakobsen and guide him back to the strong group of riders while still 50km from the finish line.
As a result, Jakobsen overcame Jordi Meeus (Bora-Hansgrohe), Matteo Trentin (UAE Emirates) to win with a time of 4 hours 8 minutes 57 seconds. This is the third time the Dutch driver has won the stage at this year’s race.
