Fabio Jakobsen claims maiden Tour de France stage win after chaotic finish on day two

Fabio Jakobsen avoided the pitfalls of a chaotic finish to stage two of the Tour de France to deliver an emotional victory in Nyborg, Denmark.

Jakobsen, making his Tour debut less than two years after suffering life-threatening injuries in a crash at the Tour of Poland, stayed clear of late spills at the end of the 202.5km stage from Roskilde to come around Mads Pedersen and beat Wout van Aert – who consoled himself by taking the yellow jersey.

The day had been designed to build up to fireworks on the 18km-long Great Belt Bridge in the finale, but it was after the peloton returned to dry land that the key incidents occurred as a crash blocked the road inside the final three kilometres, leaving a select group of sprinters to contest the honours.

It was a second stage win in as many days for the QuickStep-AlphaVinyl team, and Jakobsen’s win will have silenced those critics who had questioned the decision to select the Dutchman ahead of Mark Cavendish, the winner of four stages and the green jersey in last year’s Tour.

However Yves Lampaert, the winner of Friday’s opening time trial, conceded yellow to Van Aert, who picked up six bonus seconds for his second place to wipe out his five-second deficit from 24 hours earlier.

The Belgian now leads by a single second from compatriot Lampaert while defending champion Tadej Pogacar, held up by the late spill but spared time losses given it happened inside the final three kilometres, is eight seconds down in third.