Fabio Jakobsen (Quick-Step Floors) won the first stage of the BinckBank Tour on Monday, claiming victory in a sprint ahead of Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) and Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) in the Netherlands.
The 21-year-old, winner of the Scheldeprijs in April, will wear the leader’s jersey going into Tuesday’s 12.7km individual time trial in Venray.
“It’s my biggest victory since turning pro and I’m really proud of myself and the team, who put their confidence in me this morning and did a perfect job,” Jakobsen said. “We had bad weather and the peloton was really nervous as we approached the line, but the team was flawless and starting the race in this manner gives us great confidence.”
The seven-day race, won last year by 2017 Giro d’Italia and world time trial champion Tom Dumoulin, concludes on Sunday.
Binck Bank Tour 2018 – stage 1 results (Heerenveen – Bolsward):
| 1 | Fabio Jakobsen (Quick-Step Floors) | 4:01:00 |
| 2 | Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) | ,, |
| 3 | Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) | ,, |
| 4 | Kristoffer Halvorsen (Team Sky) | ,, |
| 5 | Max Walscheid (Team Sunweb) | ,, |
| 6 | Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) | ,, |
| 7 | Matteo Pelucchi (Bora-hansgrohe) | ,, |
| 8 | Timothy Dupont (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) | ,, |
| 9 | Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo) | ,, |
| 10 | Riccardo Minali (Astana) | ,, |
