Dutch cycling star Mathieu van der Poel has been temporarily arrested ahead of the world championship road race in Australia and has had to bury all hopes of winning the world title after a chaotic night. When he didn’t make it to the competition bet odds changed dramatically, see the current. The 27-year-old was among the top favorites in the 266.9km race around Wollongong, south of Sydney, but got off his bike after just 30km or so on Sunday.
On Saturday night (local time), there had been a dispute with noisy neighbors at the hotel. “There was a little argument. I was back in my room only at four o’clock, which is of course not ideal. It’s a disaster, but I can’t change it anymore,” van der Poel had told Belgian TV station Sporza before the start.
What do the police and official sources report?
Police in the state of New South Wales did not name names in a statement but provided details of the incident when asked by the AFP news agency. According to the statement, a verbal altercation had occurred between a 27-year-old man and two teenage girls aged 13 and 14.
The suspect then allegedly pushed the teenagers, causing one of them to fall to the ground and the other to suffer a minor abrasion to her elbow. Police took the man to the Kogarah police station and charges were filed for two counts of minor assault. The man was released on bail and is due to appear in a Sydney court on Tuesday. All the details are still unknown, no one is saying exactly what happened that night. Fans have so far refrained from accusations against the athlete. There have also been no public statements by the girls or their parents.
Christoph Roodhooft, sports director at van der Poel’s Team Alpecin-Deceuninck, confirmed the incident. His rider was “devastated,” Roodhooft said, “He didn’t sleep all night and was also a bit mentally down. He expected a lot from this day and gave everything in the last two months in preparation after his bad Tour de France.” We hope that he will not give up and will continue with the same diligence to prepare and train until the next championships. One can only imagine how an athlete feels after such an unexpected disappointment. Let’s wish him to solve these problems quickly and return to the next competition.