The Dutch sprinter for QuickStep-AlphaVinyl was too strong in the closing stages, capitalising on a leadout from Yellow Jersey holder Yves Lampaert before holding off a surging Wout van Aert to secure a maiden Tour de France stage win.
There was mayhem in the closing kilometres of the race with a major spill among the peloton leaving many riders, including reigning Le Tour champion Tadej Pogacar, to limp home.
Although missing out on taking the stage win, Belgian star van Aert finished the day in yellow with a one-second lead ahead of stage 1 winner Lampert. Van Aert also holds a one-point lead over stage winner Jakobsen in the Green Jersey classification.
For Jakobsen, the win justified his Quickstep-AlphaVinyl team’s controversial decision to go with the 25-year-old as their sprinter instead of record-breaking fast man Mark Cavendish.
Jakobsen, who only returned to racing last season after his near-death crash on stage 1 of the 2020 Tour of Pologne, said the win was the pinnacle of his career so far and was his way of giving back to those who supported him as he battled back to full health.
“Today is incroyable. For me, it was a long process step by step. A lot of people helped me along the way. This is to pay them back so they can see it was not for nothing. I'm happy I still enjoy riding the bike and racing and luckily I can still win. It's an amazing day and I'd like to thank all the people that helped me to here," Jakobsen said.
"The team kept me in a good position in front when we exited from the bridge with the right-left combination and then the final straight. I could stay behind Morkov. He dropped me in the wheel of Van Aert. In the last few hundred metres I was on the left next to Sagan, we touched but luckily we stayed upright. There was a final stretch of 150 metres where I could launch and pass the other two.
"When I tell it like this it sounds easy but for sure the legs were in pain. This is what we train for, this is why we race. A stage of the Tour de France is what I've been dreaming about for 15 years.”
The crash in the finale was not the only significant fall of the stage, as EF Education-EasyPost's GC leader Rigoberto Urán came down after a touch of wheels in the frantic run-up to the Great Belt Bridge with 21km to go and, on the crosswind section of the lengthy span, Lampaert came down in a similar incident two kilometres later.
The maillot jaune was quickly up and running and, with a spell behind the team cars and a slackening of the pace, Lampaert was back in and in shape to lead-out Jakobsen to victory. Meanwhile, it took Urán another 10km to get back on but he also made it in safely.
Of the general classification contenders, Pogačar, and Jumbo-Visma leader Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič are the best placed at 8, 16 and 17 seconds, respectively, from Van Aert.
Michael Matthews remains the highest-ranked Aussie in the GC battle in 16th position 26 seconds back, while Jack Haig is 52 seconds off the pace in 52nd and Ben O’Connor is 1 minute behind the lead in 78th.
The Tour de France continues on SBS with Stage 3 , a 182 kilometre route from Vejle to Sonderborg. Watch from 8.55 pm AEST on the SBS ŠKODA Tour Tracker, with SBS television and SBS On Demand coverage starting at 9.30 pm AEST.
