Jakobsen blames team then criticises Groenewegen after his poor sprint | Video | Sticky Bottle

*Fabio Jakobsen couldn't accept he lost the wheel today at the vital moment, instead finding fault with his own team and them turning his attention to the stage winner (Photo: Wout Beel)*

Fabio Jakobsen is likely to become the stand-out sprinter and race-winner of his generation, but the young Dutch rider let himself down today. He couldn't help but point the finger at others rather than gracefully accept defeat in the stage 3 Tour de France final sprint.

In his post-stage comments, after placing 5th into Sønderborg, he critiqued his team; saying they had ridden well until the final corner, even though he himself cornered poorly and lost his lead-out.

He then went on to say he had lost all respect for the stage winner Dylan Groenewegen (BikeExchange-Jayco). He once again raked over the coals of the crash two years ago in which Groenewegen made a mistake in closing the door on him at the Tour de Pologne, which was magnified significantly by the hopeless safety infrastructure.

“I think the team, until the last corner, did a perfect job; all the guys pulled very hard and I was quite easy on the wheels," he said of the lead-out. "But then I think in the last corner we should have stayed a bit more on the right with Florian (Senechal) so nobody could pass."

He went on to say he chose to remain calm at that point, saying he hoped his final lead-out man Michael Mørkøv would swing out - and effectively collect him again. However, he neglected to mention it was he who lost places on the final corner and so lost his lead-out.

Lara Gillespie attacks Dolomite stage as Giro hits high mountains — *Jakobsen, in green, clearly lost his lead-out on the last corner, but decided to blame everyone else....*

Video - Italy's hero Balsamo mobbed mid-stage during Giro TT — *Jakobsen, in green, clearly lost his lead-out on the last corner, but decided to blame everyone else....*

His team mates then continued to blast forward, assuming Jakobsen was in their wheels, though they were actually being followed by Jumbo Visma's Christophe Laporte and team mate Wout Van Aert.

After critiquing his team, Jakobsen then turned his attention to the stage winner, fellow Dutchman Groenewegen. And while there is no question he caused Jakobsen to crash in Poland two years ago, Groenewegen's movement on the day was in line with what many sprinters do regularly.

However, the finish line barriers on the day failed to stand up to the impact of the crash, which meant Jakobsen ploughed through them and suffered life-threatening injuries.

Those failures of the safety infrastructure do not appear to have registered with Jakobsen, who choses instead to solely blame Groenewegen, though he begrudgingly said the win today show the BikeExchange-Jayco rider was "a good sprinter".

“I have to say that before the crash I admired his palmares and I kind of looked up to him a bit. But now that is completely gone after the crash because of the mistake he made. I think that's normal. So it’s nice for him to win but it doesn’t really affect me."