Fabio Jakobsen (Netherlands) won the elite men’s road race at the European Championships in Munich, beating Arnaud Démare (France) and Tim Merlier (Belgium) in a bunch sprint.
Jakobsen produced a fine effort to overtake Merlier at the last and hold off the fast-closing Démare to end four years of Italian dominance in the event.
The Italian squad led out the sprint on behalf of Alberto Dainese before Bert Van Lerberghe took over for Merlier, but it was Jakobsen’s crisp acceleration that won the day.
Jakobsen’s teammate Danny van Poppel took fourth ahead of Sam Bennett (Ireland), Luka Mezgec (Slovenia) and Elia Viviani (Italy).
The 208km race was always likely to end with a mass finish, though that did not deter early escapees Lukas Pöstlberger (Austria) and Silvan Dillier (Switzerland), who spent the bulk of the day off the front.
Nearing the midpoint of the race, the Italian squad made an attempt to splinter the peloton on the climb of Eurasburg, with Matteo Trentin prominent, but none of the sprinters were unduly troubled and the peloton reformed shortly afterwards.
Local favourite Pascal Ackermann’s challenge was ended by a crash on the second of five laps of the flat, 13km finishing circuit in Munich. Out in front, Pöstlberger and Dillier battled to maintain their slender lead over the chasers, but they were pegged back with a shade over two laps remaining.
From there, the coalition formed by the sprinters’ teams ensured that there would be a bunch finish, with Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Norway all prominent in organising the peloton.
Stefan Bissegger (Switzerland) made a late attempt to tear up the script with a determined solo attack with 3.5km remaining, and his rally last a kilometre or so before the Dutch squad brought him back.
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