Mathieu van der Poel impressively continued his streak of victories in Hulst. However, it was primarily a different action of the superstar's that made the news. Footage showed him spitting at a group of spectators. The reason for his reaction was persistent booing, Van der Poel explained afterwards to IDLProCycling.com and other media outlets.
"It was nothing, just a bunch of hecklers. I'm done with that now. It was continuous, even during the warm-up," MVDP explained his action. "Then you might as well stay at home. I've had enough of that booing. Booing does not belong in sports, not for anyone," concluded the clearly cheerful winner.
Van der Poel couldn't "not respond in kind" after series of incidents
What exactly were those spectators shouting at the versatile Dutchman? "You better ask them yourself. I'm not going to repeat it. They were things that do not belong in sports." The 28-year-old cyclist from Kapellen in the Netherlands does not expect to regret his action. "After a while, enough is enough, even for me. It's better not to pay too much attention to it."
A witness at the cyclo-cross race, who saw the incident up close, claims on X (formerly Twitter) that the spectators were doing more than just booing Van der Poel. "Those Belgian 'fans' were throwing beer and urine at him. I was standing right there," reads the message. Van der Poel himself reshared the spectator's message on his X account. When Van der Poel was 'physically' confronted with this in the mixed zone, he stated: "I don't know exactly what was in the cups, but I was hit with all sorts of things. The texts weren't necessarily very offensive. It wasn't so much that it affected me. But it's more that it's not up to me to not respond in kind after all those things."
Place comments
0 Comments
You are currently seeing only the comments you are notified about, if you want to see all comments from this post, click the button below.
Show all comments