"Not good enough": How Fabio Jakobsen transformed after brutal self-reflection

Fabio Jakobsen has been brutally hard on himself over the past few months. The now 28-year-old Dutchman was brought to Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL with great fanfare at the end of 2023 after leaving Soudal-Quick Step. He was expected to be the team's lead sprinter, aiming for stage victories in major races. However, Jakobsen only managed to claim a single stage win in the Tour of Turkey. Speaking with IDLProCycling.com, Jakobsen, sprint coach Roy Curvers, and lead-out rider Timo Roosen reflect on his shortcomings in 2024 and outline the steps for improvement in 2025.

Let’s go back to May of last year. Jakobsen was catching his breath on a wall after a time trial to Perugia when he suddenly uttered harsh criticism to this website: "It’s a bit of a struggle. I’m doing my best, but it’s honestly not good enough. Sometimes that’s just how it is, and I’m frustrated about it. We need to take a look at this with the team," he said.

The questions started to pile up during the first week of the Giro d’Italia when Jakobsen was repeatedly dropped on climbs. "The plan wasn’t to lose contact with the peloton so early every time, but I just need to be a bit lighter and push a bit harder. Right now, the balance is off," he explained. "I feel good, I recover well, but I can’t go fast enough. It’s as if there’s a limit I can’t break through. We need to go back to the drawing board—maybe I need to become more of an all-around cyclist and less of a pure sprinter."

That shift started immediately. After crashing out of the Giro on stage 11, Jakobsen focused on weight and endurance. "Literally just riding more and focusing on getting from A to B, so I have more left in the tank for the final kilometers," he explained a few weeks after the Giro. However, after also abandoning the Tour de France due to illness, the conclusion was clear: "I was often too far out of position and not physically strong enough to sprint."

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Jakobsen rode injured in the Tour after a crash

Jakobsen experienced a 'bumpy winter' heading into 2024

Those exact words are what Jakobsen reiterated during the January camp in Calpe, speaking to IDLProCycling.com. "I think we need to focus on two things: A: getting into a sprint-winning position in the finale. And B: reaching a level where I can still sprint once I get there. Last year, I often didn’t manage to get into the right position and didn’t even get to sprint. That’s partly physical and partly tactical, and those often go hand-in-hand."

A cause for his lackluster performance has since been identified. Curvers, now the sprint coach at what is now called Picnic-PostNL, explains: "Cycling at the very highest level is all about the details. Last year, Fabio first and foremost had a bumpy winter, during which he wasn’t always in good health. Part of that was beyond his control, though some of it wasn’t. Then, in a new environment, we didn’t yet fully understand how Fabio as an athlete would respond to certain training methods or what the consequences would be of missing a few sessions."

The impact turned out to be far greater than expected. "We didn’t underestimate it, but we did think that with Fabio’s years of experience as a pro, such a winter wouldn’t have such a big effect. When the races began, it became clear that it did," says Curvers. He emphasizes that the team critically evaluated their 2024 approach. "Everyone looked at what they could have done better, what we didn’t handle properly. We’ve reflected and reviewed things on an individual level to make sure 2025 doesn’t turn out to be another year like that."

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Jakobsen only won one stage in the Tour of Turkey in 2024

Jakobsen wants to embrace his classics roots again

To ensure a better 2025, Jakobsen has started his winter training with great determination. No more setbacks, but focused on accumulating miles—and already shedding four kilos (!). "We all need to keep up with the times, and last year I fell behind in that regard. Now, I’m trying to take at least one step forward, if not more. That’s why I’m ahead of my usual schedule—I don’t want to spend another year playing catch-up."

As Curvers puts it: "I see a driven athlete at work, someone who wants to be in perfect condition right from the start. He doesn’t want to miss a single day and has spent the entire winter in Spain, training in ideal conditions. His winter has been far more stable than last year, and you can see that in his physical condition." Roosen, who usually leads out Jakobsen in sprints, agrees: "He’s riding smoothly, even uphill. It looks easier now; we’re riding and training harder. That’s bound to have an impact."

Because after such a challenging year, it’s easy to forget that Jakobsen has 46 victories on his record, including races with tough finales. Those climbs were never a problem for him. "I’ve never seen myself as a pure sprinter but always viewed myself through the lens of a classics-style rider, both in training and as a racer," he explains. "Otherwise, you don’t win a race like Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. I shouldn’t push that aspect aside too much. Classics riders can position themselves well, recover from deep efforts, and I need to get back to that a bit more."

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Jakobsen in better days, as European champion in 2022

Picnic-PostNL and Jakobsen aren't celebrating with a dance just yet

From all three of them, there’s a consensus: it’s time for a new approach. "Cycling is evolving—it’s faster and harder, especially uphill," Jakobsen rightly observes. Was his 2024 ambition to fully focus on being a pure sprint powerhouse perhaps a bit naïve? "I trained extremely hard for that. I gained a few kilos of extra muscle mass, and that’s clear in the data. That worked well, but it wasn’t functional at all for winning races. We have to be honest about that."

Losing those kilos to become the "old Fabio" again? Jakobsen prefers not to phrase it that way. "Maybe the 2024 approach would’ve made me competitive four or five years ago. Last year, we put too much emphasis on maximizing my sprint power, but you still need to be able to sprint at the end of a race. It’s about finding the right balance, and that’s what we’re working on. We’re getting closer, but I don’t want to be premature—it needs to show in races first."

According to Curvers, this adjustment process already began during the Giro. "You can only tweak so many things—you can’t make up for lost time. You can do things right from that point on and hope you catch up quickly. But if 2024 had just been a series of near-misses, maybe we would’ve stuck to the original plan. Now, it was clear that change was necessary. The most important thing is for Fabio to become a winning sprinter again. We want to get into that flow, and we’ll see where it takes us from there. What happened in 2024 is something we don’t want to repeat."

Roosen would agree with that. He’d rather see his leader winning than sitting disappointed in the team bus. “Fabio has always given it his all, and he’s frustrated when things don’t work out. He wanted things to change and would even apologize for it. He’s very honest and straightforward about it. Fabio is a good guy, but when things don’t go well, it’s tough after the race. Then we talk about what went wrong. He’s drawn his conclusions in training. I’m confident he can return to being among the world’s best.”

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