By now you know it ended well. That cyclist Fabio Jakobsen won three stages plus the points jersey in the Tour of Spain in 2021. That this year he was the fastest in a bunch sprint in the Tour de France, the semi-classic Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne and won the European championship. Moreover, that he got married at the end of October. How else could it all have turned out, that dramatic first stage of the Tour of Poland, August 5, 2020 just before half past six at the finish in Katowice.
Author Menno Haanstra did not yet know about the horror crash that almost killed Jakobsen when he started work in the spring of 2015. Fabio and Julius, the boys’ book by Fabio Jakobsen and Julius van den Berg. He becomes fascinated by two young cyclists with an unbridled ambition to become professionals and starts to follow them. A special ‘coming of age story’, that is the intention. Until the drive to Katowice. One minute they are happily waving to each other, the next moment things go horribly wrong. “In a very wry way, Fabio’s near-fatal crash in Poland depicted the extreme life the boys lead,” writes Haanstra in his introduction.
Friendship and misfortune
Jakobsen’s accident and recovery could have been a book in itself. Nevertheless, Haanstra, previously the biographer of skater Jan Ykema and football coach Foppe de Haan, chose to stick to his original idea. A chronological story, from the first meeting between Jakobsen and Van den Berg among the newcomers in 2012 to their most recent successes in 2022. And everything in between in terms of success, doubt, friendship and setbacks. That choice works. As a reader, it is precisely because of the broader perspective that you experience from the inside how professional cyclists think and act, even at the most dramatic moments. You can’t get any closer.
It still seems romantic in the beginning. Guys they are, but nice guys. Dondersteen Fabio of Rennersclub Jan van Arckel from the Betuwe and the uncomplicated Julius van Zaanlandse Wielerclub DTS and later Viking Waterland. Trek drop and frankfurters to the race, compassionate family, first successes. Their paths cross in SEG’s training crew, where they become roommates and friends. Fascinating contrast between the rapid breakthrough of ‘killer’ Jakobsen and the battle for a contract of the ‘patented fast driver’ Van den Berg. Their dream of becoming a professional comes true, but the pressure is immediately there: they have to win (Fabio), a young family at home (Julius).
“Mommy, don’t come here, don’t… Oh God, it has fallen… you shouldn’t look…! It’s really not good…” The sentences of sister Marloes Jakobsen cut through the soul. You can see it again in a moment, that disastrous day in the corona summer 2020, when Dylan Groenewegen deviates from his line in a dangerous final sprint, sending Jakobsen flying into the fences. Haanstra describes the accident from the kitchen of the Jakobsen family in Heukelum. From Zuidland, where the cyclist’s girlfriend forces herself to watch the replay again and again, looking for something positive. Then she gets the first call from Poland, team doctor Yvan Vanmol, no, it’s not good. “As long as he doesn’t die… as long as he doesn’t die,” she mutters.
‘Paralyzing panic’
Julius van den Berg turns his head from the devastation when he crosses the finish line in Katowice two minutes after the peloton. He always does in a crash. Last year he had witnessed in Poland how the young Belgian Bjorg Lambrecht died in an accident. It is not until the riders’ hotel that he learns that his friend Fabio has been seriously injured. Haanstra describes his ‘silent, paralyzing panic’, the additional anxiety about his own heart palpitations, an ‘uncontrollable cry’ in the arms of a sports director. The next day he immediately goes on the attack for the polka dot jersey. Afterwards on stage, on TV with the text on a paper: ‘FORZA FABIO STAY STRONG MATE’.
‘War report by Renaat Schotte’ is the title of the chapter about the Belgian journalist who is one of the few (corona rules) on site at the accident. “Everywhere you looked, there was total upheaval,” says Schotte. It remains gripping to read, precisely because of the way in which Haanstra intertwines the different perspectives. Girlfriend, family, team, Julius, Schotte. Their relief as a mortal danger has passed, when Jakobsen awakens from a coma, his first steps to recovery, 150 stitches are removed from his palate. Meanwhile, Van den Berg overcomes the fear of his own heart problem. Dramatizing is unnecessary, it’s all as bizarre as it is.
Before you know it, the friends are racing again, with their everyday setbacks and successes. Hard world, Haanstra explains perhaps just one too often. Because the story of Fabio and Julius itself already speaks volumes. ‘I’m proud Lekker buddy’, Jakobsen texts Van den Berg when his friend takes the mountain jersey in the Vuelta on the Amerongse mountain. Simply happy as a professional cyclist. As Jakobsen himself puts it: “I have been so scared and anxious that I would not make it. Because yes … just really many times I had the idea that I was going to die. That touches your soul so much and then you are so happy with everything that is left, that you still exist, so to speak.” What a profession.
Menno Haanstra: Fabio and Julius, the boy’s book by Fabio Jakobsen and Julius van den Berg Publisher De Muur, 224 pp. €21.99
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