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news
Mathieu van der Poel at Wollongong 2022 (copyright Simon Wilkinson, SWpix.com)Mathieu van der Poel charged with assault after incident at hotel hours before World Championship road race
Mathieu van der Poel, who was among the favourites to win today’s Elite Men Road Race at the UCI Road World Championships in Wollongong, has been charged with assault following an incident overnight at his hotel, reports Sporza.
The Dutch rider, who attended a police station overnight, returned to his hotel at around 4am, around six hours before the start of the race – won by Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel – but abandoned after just 35km.
❗️Race update@mathieuvdpoel 🇳🇱 has decided to abandon the Men Elite Road Race here at @wollongong2022.#Wollongong2022 pic.twitter.com/jQyXrsSd6k
— UCI (@UCI_cycling) September 25, 2022
> Remco Evenepoel solos his way to World Championship victory
The 27 year old said that last night he was woken repeatedly by a pair of teenage girls knocking on the door of the hotel room in the southern Sydney suburb of Brighton-Le-Sands.
In a statement from New South Wales Police tweeted by journalist Thijs Zonneveld, a spokesperson said that following a “verbal altercation” between a man – van der Poel – and two teenage girls aged 13 and 14, “it is further alleged the man then pushed both teenagers, with one falling to the ground and the other being pushed into a wall, causing a minor graze to her elbow.
“Hotel management were notified of the incident, who then called police. Officers from St George police area command attended and arrested a 27-year-old man shortly after.”
Van der Poel, who has been required to surrender his passport, was charged with two counts of common assault and released on conditional bail, and is due to appear on Tuesday at Sutherland Local Court.
Hier het statement van de lokale politie: pic.twitter.com/MiuIwV109u
— Thijs Zonneveld (@thijszonneveld) September 25, 2022
Belgian broadcaster Sporza reports that van der Poel confirmed before the start of today’s race that he was the rider involved in the incident.
“It’s true, yes. There was a small dispute. It was about noisy neighbours and they are quite strict here,” he explained.
“I wasn’t back in my room until 4 o’clock. That’s certainly not ideal. It’s a disaster, but I can’t change anything anymore. I’m trying to make the best of it."
“I’ll race on little sleep, hopefully on adrenaline. It was certainly not fun. It is what it is, I have to deal with it.”
Speaking about the incident itself, he said: “I went to bed early and many kids in the hallway of my room found it necessary to knock on the door continuously.
“After a few times I was done with it. I didn’t ask so nicely to stop. Then the police were called and I was taken away,” he added.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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According to Algemene Dagblad, van der Poel had gone to bed at 2100, and these kids were playing "chap door" / "knock and run" on his door for the next few **hours**. According to AD, van der Poel had complained to their parents before the incident. Then at 2140, after another chap on the door, he lost it and ran after them following them into their room where he pushed them, causing one to fall over and get some kind of abrasion injury.
AD seems to have pieced this together from the girls themselves, a source at the hotel, and the police report. But not 100% clear which claims came from what sources.
Hopefully the UCI will see sense and have no further serious competition in cycling-hating Aus. The whole thing has been a farce.
Teenagers were most likely paid to disturb van der Poel so that his performance suffered the following day. Obviously worked.
My bookies in Macau always have my back covered!
Breaking: case expedited to this morning as he has a flight back to Europe this evening, ordered to pay $1500 fine for two charges of common assault for pushing two girls aged 13 and 14, one fell over and one suffered slight grazed elbow bumping against a wall. Clearly his behaviour wasn't ideal and one doesn't want to condone any form of violence but one imagines he took the first opportunity to get his passport back and get out of Australia, rather than staying for days or possibly weeks arguing mitigation. According to his lawyer (and Cycling Tips) he denies pushing the children and intends to contest the fines (presumably remotely)
Interesting. Doesnt Australia have the same rules as US and UK wrt criminal offenses, where you are then denied entry in the future? (Assuming this meets that bar)
I guess there's what 1 or 2 World Tour level events a year he's now excluded from?
As I understand it, the bar is custodial sentences (either single or cumulative) amounting to more than 12 months in prison, whether served or not, so he shouldn't have too much trouble. Even those who don't meet the bar can get a visa, but they have to go through a special application process.
An opportunity of course to repeat Noel Coward's line when entering Australia:
Immigration officer: Do you have any criminal convictions?
Coward: My dear boy, I'm awfully sorry, I had no idea they were still compulsory.
Yeah, he is apparently barred from entering AU again for 3 years, as things stand.
His solicitor says he will be appealing. (I presume that can only be against the sentence, given that van der Poel entered a guilty plea to the charges before the magistrate).
Why weren't the Dutch in a better standard of hotel? And why didn't the Dutch team manager get the hotel to sort the problem out?
This fracas should have never got anywhere close to happening.
Would never happen with Ineos....
I would sue the little brats parents for a million€ each.
You can't bang on hotel doors - no matter who is sleeping there
They were playing knock-and-run on his door for nearly 3 hours, before he lost it. He had, apparently, complained to the parents about this at some point prior to the incident.
This is according to the Algemeen Dagblad in NL.
Australia is not a welcoming place for cyclists.
Bit of a sh1thole all round. Its infested with aussies!
They should name and shame the little bastards and fine their parents. Can you imagine the security if it had been a tennis player or, god forbid, a petulant little footballer?
It will be interesting to find out what kind of parents these little shits have. The compo & media seeking kind or the mortified you're grounded for life kind.
your first choice i would imagine.
I really feel for MvdP, this is such BS. And where was everyone that might have dealt with this situation: team management, hotel management or even (FFS) parents?
Without knowing what "I didn't ask so nicely to stop" actually entailed we can't really judge how justified the arrest was, but certainly one would have thought that with a potential world champion in the hotel team management and hotel security would have had some arrangement to keep the public away from his door. Given the huge expense of flying a team to Australia and getting them accommodation et cetera one wouldn't have thought a few hundred dollars on a security guard would break the bank. What if instead of annoying teenage girls it had been some nutter with a knife determined to make a name for himself by attacking a celebrity?
Hopefully it will all turn out to be a storm in a teacup that can be settled with an apology and a small fine or whatever, but it is pretty rubbish that MVDP has been deprived of the chance at a rainbow jersey on a course that would have really suited him, and that we were potentially deprived of the spectacle of him and Remco going mano a mano over the last 15 km.
That's the really big disappointment...missing a potential MvdP v Remco shootout.