After his strong solo ride, Mathieu van der Poel could not look forward to the victory at the spring classic Paris-Roubaix. Because after a fan attack, the Dutch was still powerful at the finish line.
“This is unacceptable. It was a full bottle, it weighed half a kilo and I drove at 40 km/h,” said Mathieu van der Poel, who had been dropped by a viewer in the final phase of the single -day race.
“It is like getting a stone in the face. It hurt me very much,” complained the cycling superstar about the attack. Together with his team, he now wanted to “identify the viewer and take legal action,” announced van der Poel.
Around 33 kilometers before the finish, the TV pictures showed how the 30-year-old got a yellow bottle against his head.
Van der Poel had to struggle with similar attacks in the past. This time he could not get out of it in the middle of a heavy cobblestone section.
Van der Poel beats permanent rival Tadej Pogacar
The incident occurred in a particularly delicate phase of the race. Because Van der Poel had just set the decisive attack and distanced his rival Tadej Pogacar.
The Slovenian Tour-de France winner had previously made a driving error. Pogacar taxed himself in a difficult curve and then had to let van der Poel go.
The gap between the two hurried top drivers grew up to the finish line. Ultimately, Van der Poel finished 1:18 minutes ahead and won the most important cycling classic for the third time in a row.
“That means a lot. It is such a hard race and I suffered a lot,” said van der Poel after the 259.2 hard -fought kilometers – over 55 of them over cobblestones: “It is bitter that Tadej had this mistake in the bottleneck, but it was still a long way for me.”