Two rooms, two environments for the return of Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) this Tuesday. The two cycling stars returned from Australia on the same plane and landed in Europe around 2pm at Zaventem airport near Brussels. If time was at the party of the first, received like a hero by an entire town with his world champion shirt, the Dutchman had to face the press, eager to hear his first reactions to the soap opera of the moment. “Of course I’m sorry about what happened. I’m to blame too, I admit. I shouldn’t have done that“, reacted in particular the one who was sentenced on Monday by the Australian justice system for having “assaulted two girls on Saturday night at a hotel in Sydney“, just before the road race of the METERglobal.
Video – MVDP returned from Australia on the same plane as Evenepoel
“He was holding a girl by the arm, but certainly not with the intention of hurting her.”
Mathieu van der Poel He then returned to this incident and gave his version of the events, while videos and first images have appeared since Tuesday morning about the altercation between the cyclist and the two young women who annoyed him by hitting several collected at his door. “That’s what I said: I was holding a girl by the arm. Certainly not with the intention of hurting anyone. Anyone who knows me knows that I have never hurt anyone. There are many stories floating around about a stampede, but it is not entirely true. That’s not what happened. There are two sides to a story and when you’re in Australia it’s very difficult to deal with them.“, he defends himself.
“I should have told the front desk or someone else anyway. But it was late and I wanted to sleep. I thought I could solve this problem myself, but it went wrong. Unfortunately, I can’t do anything about it now.”he lamented, now hoping to be able to move on as soon as possible. “I’m trying to put that behind me and move on to see what comes next. I’m going to go home for a while now, have some peace and quiet. Anyway, I’m really happy to be back.” the country. The team and the lawyer will now take care of that’concluded Mathieu van der PoelI’m sure I didn’t expect to come back from Australia with a business so managing…
World Cups: Alpecin-Deceuninck: “We want a conversation with Mathieu” #Wollongong2022 #MVDP #AlpecinDeceuninck #Policeman https://t.co/GXYZxTOXWu
– Cyclist’Actu (@ciclistamactu) September 27, 2022
Videos of the discussion are beginning to circulate…
Although the situation and context of this incident are still very vague, images and videos are beginning to circulate on the web where girls are seen knocking on a door before fleeing, but where the images of the altercation do not identify them with certainty. Mathieu van der Poel. the dutch media Het Algemeen Dagblad received more explicit videos that he did not post because the girls are underage and recognizable. The videos would confirm that the girls knocked on the door of Mathieu van der Poel. Then we heard the runner explain that he hadn’t touched anyone but also that they had knocked on his door for three hours.
The oldest of the girls involved (14), explained that she did not know that a professional runner slept in a room close to hers. Another video would show the aftermath of the incident in which “MVDPhe explains to the parents that he had an important errand the next day. Accused by a woman of having threatened them, van der poel then I would have said I should”call the police and tell them“. Something that the parents of the girls had obviously already done. Taken to the police station the same night and fined on Monday, van der Poel was finally able to leave the Australian territory last night.
AD has seen some short videos of the history of the 🇳🇱 MVDP hotel made by the girls. Two of the three (12, 13, 14 years old) played ‘knock and run’. The parents slept in another room. MVDP quickly chased them after knocking on his door until they entered his room. No bumps or shoves.https://t.co/4Luivy1Zlr
— Cyclocross24.com (@cyclocross24) September 27, 2022
Mathieu Van der Poel: “Yes, it’s true, there was a little discussion…”
As a reminder, just before taking the start of the road race this Sunday, Mathieu van der Poel I had already commented on this incident. “Yes, it’s true, there was a little discussion.explained to the journalists present at the beginning, before giving his version of the events. I wanted to go to bed early last night, but there were many children in the hotel corridor 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. I didn’t get back to my hotel room until four in the morning. It’s certainly not ideal, it’s even a mess, but there’s nothing you can do about it. I’ll do my best.”
Back in Europe, van der Poel explains: “There was no pushing, I just took a girl by the arm.” #velvetbf https://t.co/Tv4hgmu3KI
— RTBF Sport (@RTBFsport) September 27, 2022