Fabio Jakobsen pounces to win stage two as Wout van Aert becomes new leader at Tour de France

We will never know whether Mark Cavendish would have won Saturday's bunch gallop into Nyborg on the windswept Danish coast and so made history by becoming the most successful Tour de France stage winner of all time. 

The Manxman, tied with Eddy Merckx on 34 wins, was controversially left at home. It remains to be seen whether the greatest sprinter ever to have graced the sport gets to tackle this race again. At 37, time is not on Cavendish’s side. But if the last few years have taught us anything, it is never to write him off.

In Cavendish’s stead, the man who Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl picked as their lead sprinter did the business. And it would take a heart of stone not to be delighted for Fabio Jakobsen. Two years ago, at the Tour of Poland, the 25-year-old Jakobsen crashed so badly on a downhill sprint finish at the Tour of Poland - pushed into the barriers by Dylan Groenewegen, who subsequently received a nine-month ban - he had to be placed into a medically induced coma.

Jakobsen underwent facial reconstructive surgery and for a brief while his life, let alone his cycling career, was on the line. His extensive list of serious injuries included a skull fracture, torn palate, brain contusion, broken nose, and loss of part of both his upper and lower jaw as well as 10 teeth. 

Jakobsen’s comeback at last year’s Vuelta a Espana, where he claimed three stage wins and the points jersey, was one of the stories of the season. His win on Saturday, coming around Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) in emphatic fashion to claim victory in his first proper stage of his first Tour de France, was the stuff of dreams.