Alpecin-Deceuninck wants to have access to the complete file and wishes to speak with Mathieu van der Poelas well as with those involved from the Dutch delegation, following the incident which occurred on the night of Saturday to Sunday, a few hours from the road race of the World Cycling Championships in Wollongong, Australia. “We will then determine the measures to be taken“, wrote the Belgian formation in a press release published on Monday.
“We have taken note of the events of the past 48 hours. It is clear that this story harms everyone, which we can only regret.“, Alpecin-Fenix added.Initially, we wanted to provide on-site legal assistance to Mathieu van der Poel so that he might return as soon as possible. From now on, we want to get a complete view of the facts, in particular by consulting the file and speaking with Mathieu van der Poel and the people involved from Team NL.“, added the Belgian team.
Van der Poel spent the night from Saturday to Sunday in jail for shoving two teenage girls, 13 and 14, following the hotel called the police. The nervousness of the winner of the last Tour of Flanders was explained because the teenagers made noise and knocked on the door of his hotel room several times while he was trying to sleep on the eve of the world championship.
After pleading guilty, he was sentenced Monday to a fine of one thousand Australian dollars (670 euros) for assaulting one of the girls and another of five hundred dollars (335 euros) for his behavior vis-à-vis the second teenager. Mathieu van der Poel’s lawyer has announced that he will appeal the decision and hopes for his client’s acquittal.
The grandson of Raymond Poulidor had been released at 4 a.m. but deprived of his passport and summoned to court on Tuesday, which was to rule on the case, which was finally brought forward to Monday.
The judge did not take into account the fact that he is a professional athlete. The fact that he was taking part the next day in a big race did not constitute a mitigating circumstance for the judge.
Mathieu van der Poel abandoned the world championship on Sunday, won by Remco Evenepoelfollowing 30 kilometers.
