Mathieu van der Poel was struck in the face by a water bottle thrown from the roadside during his third consecutive win at Paris-Roubaix on Sunday, prompting the Dutch cyclist to call for action.
The 30-year-old is a huge star on the road cycling scene but is not universally popular and has had his share of run-ins with fans over the years.
“It was like getting hit by a stone. The bottle was nearly full and weighed half a kilo and when someone throws it like that it’s not nothing,” he said in his post-race press conference at the Roubaix velodrome.
The incident happened 37km from the end of the race on a cobbled mining road packed with fans, who had been out in the fields for hours.
“Something should be done about it. People spitting and throwing things, it’s too much and I’m going to ask for action to be taken,” he said. “I hope we can identify who did it and take action.”
Van der Poel was spat upon at the recent E3 Saxo Classic in Belgium, where he was roundly booed by an unruly section of the Belgian fans.
He has frequently had urine thrown at him on the cyclocross circuit and also had a confrontation with a fan in a spitting incident in 2024.
Van der Poel was himself arrested after a run-in with teenagers who he accused of playing ‘knock-a-door-run’ on his hotel door on the eve of the 2022 world championship race, for which he was the favourite.
CCTV images showed Van der Poel dressed only in underwear chasing the teenagers back to their room.
He pulled out of the race after 50km having spent the night at a police station.
© 2025 AFP
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