Mathieu van der Poel gave up this Sunday after only 30 kilometers during the cycling world championships in Australia after spending the night at the police station for an altercation with some teenage girls.
His world championships only lasted 30 kilometers. One of the great favorites of these World Cups in Australia, Mathieu van der Poel gave up this Sunday, shortly after the start. The Dutchman, “very disappointed and mentally devastated” according to his manager, was not in a psychological condition to continue the race after having lived a restless night that he spent at the police station due to an altercation with two teenagers aged 13 and 14. .
To be in the best possible position in his quest for the world champion rainbow jersey, Mathieu van der Poel had gone to bed early. But he was disturbed by these young women who allegedly knocked on his bedroom door several times. Very upset, he would have gone out to express his anger and, in the altercation, one of the teenagers would have been injured in the arm.
“After a while, I was fed up”
“At around 10:40pm on Saturday, a man was involved in a verbal altercation with two teenage boys aged 13 and 14 at a hotel in Brighton-Le-Sands. According to the reported facts, he pushed the two teenagers, one fell to the ground and the other was thrown against a wall, causing a small scratch on his elbow, ”the police detailed in a press release.
Informed by the hotel, the local authorities intervened on the scene and arrested Mathieu van der Poel, who was taken to the police station, where he saw his passport confiscated and charged with two cases of assault. If he was released on bail and left office around 4am, he will appear at Suthterland Court in Sydney’s southern suburbs on Tuesday.
Before leaving, he returned to this incident and gave his version of events. “I wanted to go to bed early last night, but there were many children in the hotel corridor who kept knocking on my door. After a while, he was fed up. I told them, in a not very understanding way, to stop. That’s when they called the police and took me away,” he said. Returning to his room, Mathieu van der Poel hadn’t slept all night and thus saw his dreams of a rainbow T-shirt vanish.