He wanted to become world champion but ended up in the police station. Mathieu van der Poel went from dream to nightmare, Sunday September 25, and will now have to answer before the Australian courts for assault against two teenage girls.
Arrested by the police on Saturday evening before being released in the early morning, the Dutchman took it well the start of the Worlds road race in Wollongong, the queen event of which he was one of the big favourites. But he dismounted after only thirty kilometers, exhausted.
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
According to Christoph Roodhooft, the manager of his professional team Alpecin-Deceuninck, the multiple cyclocross world champion has “not slept all night”after an incident which occurred on Saturday evening in the hotel of his selection in Brighton-Le-Sands, in the southern suburbs of Sydney, revealed by the Flemish chain Sporza.
Without revealing, as usual, the identity of Van der Poel, the New South Wales police confirmed to AFP that a 27-year-old man, the age of the runner, had been charged with two assault on two teenage girls aged 13 and 14.
“At around 10.40pm on Saturday a man was involved in a verbal altercation with two teenage girls aged 13 and 14 at a hotel in Brighton-Le-Sands. It is alleged he pushed the two teenage girls, one falling to the ground and the other being thrown against a wall, causing a small scratch on his elbow”police said in a statement.
“The hotel management was notified and then called the police” and “a 27-year-old man was arrested shortly after”before being “taken to Kogarah police station” where he has been “indicted for two cases of assault”, added the police. Released on bail, Van der Poel must now appear in court in Sutherland on Tuesday.
At the start of the race in line, Van der Poel did not deny the incident. “Yes it’s true, there was a little argumenthe told reporters. I wanted to go to bed early last night but there were plenty of kids in the hotel hallway who kept knocking on my door. After a while, I was fed up. I told them, in a not very sympathetic way, to stop. That’s when the police were called and took me away.”
A strange affair for Mathieu van der Poel. Arrested last night in Australia, he was forced to give up in the first kilometers of the road race at the Wollongong Worlds.
Follow the race live: https://t.co/wiEjNp8Njb pic.twitter.com/7zM4dfu5Eu
— francetvsport (@francetvsport) September 25, 2022
“Mathieu went to bed at 9 p.m. and at midnight there was always noise. Children were playing in the hallway and knocking on his door. He went out to tell them to stop but obviously not in the right way”continued Christoph Roodhooft, questioned by the press.
Returned to his room “at four in the morning”Van der Poel then did not sleep a wink all night, according to his team manager. “It’s certainly not ideal, it’s even a disaster, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I’ll do my best“, said the rider before taking the start.
He gave up after only thirty kilometers of racing, before rushing into a white SUV, without saying a word. The thunderclap shook the peloton. “What? He said hello to me at the start!”launched the double defending champion Julian Alaphilippe to his coach, Thomas Voeckler, when the latter came up to him during the race to tell him the news.
“He is very disappointed, he is mentally destroyedreported Christoph Roodhooft. He had a lot of ambitions for this race. He had been gaining momentum for two months and had found the joy of racing after his difficult Tour de France.”
But rather than on a potential podium, Mathieu van der Poel’s World Cup will therefore be played on Tuesday, September 27, in court.