Baloise Belgium Tour

Fabio Jakobsen came close to what would have been his tenth win of the season, only for the 22-year-old Dutchman to be stopped 100 meters from the finish of the race’s second stage in Knokke-Heist when a rider changed direction at the last moment and forced him to hit the brakes.

Victorious most recently last weekend at Elfstedenronde, Fabio was once again guided through the hectic closing kilometers by his strong lead-out train comprising Yves Lampaert, Michael Mørkøv and Florian Sénéchal, and had the speed on the uphill drag to the line, but eventually had to settle for seventh as Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Fenix) took the win at the end of the 175.6km stage.

In the general classification, Mauro Schmid remains just 14 seconds off the lead, but also Yves and Florian are well-placed, only three seconds behind their teammate, ahead of the 11.8km individual time trial in Scherpenheuvel-Zichem, which is expected to reshuffle the standings and bring more riders in contention for the overall win.

Photo credit: ©Mark Van Hecke / Getty Images