Jakobsen in coma after horrific crash
WARSAW: Dutch cyclist Fabio Jakobsen is in a serious but stable condition, doctors said yesterday, a day after a horrifying crash in the opening stage of the Tour of Poland.
Jakobsen, of the Deceuninck-Quick Step team, underwent a five-hour operation to the head during the night and is still in a medically-induced coma in intensive care.
“Today we will try and wake him from the coma,” Pawel Gruenpeter, deputy head of the Sosnowiec hospital, where Jakobsen is being treated, told Polish media.
“A scan has been carried out and the brain does not appear to have been affected... The main injuries are to the face. Fortunately the eyes have not been affected. The condition is serious but stable,” Gruenpeter said.
Jakobsen, 23, was thrown into and over a barrier at 80kph as he raced elbowto-elbow with fellow Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen of Jumbo-Visma in a tight sprint to the line in Katowice in southern Poland.
Groenewegen veered suddenly to the right, squeezing his rival into the security wall. Jakobsen somersaulted over the barriers before colliding with a race official.
No spectators were present as the race is being held with coronavirus pandemic precautions in place.
Groenewegen went on to win the stage but was later disqualified with Jakobsen declared the winner.
Organiser Czeslaw Lang said in a statement that he was “somewhat relieved” after speaking to doctors.
“After seeing the crash, we feared the worst, but now we know that the situation is serious but stabilised,” Lang said.
Lang said that the race official also injured in the accident had “regained consciousness and is now in a stable condition”.