The girls knocked on the cyclist’s door, room 930, multiple times at 10.40pm and ran back into their room, which “frustrated” van der Poel as he had the race the following morning.
“He waited for the victims to knock on his door and chased them into their hotel room, following close behind them,” court documents state.
Van der Poel chased the girls, causing one of them to run into a corner and crouch down while covering her face.
The cyclist ran up to her and grabbed her by both arms, squeezing them and pushing her against a wall while yelling at her, causing her to suffer a minor carpet burn graze to her right elbow and redness to her left forearm.
van der Poel noticed the second girl trying to leave the room and pushed her against a wall using both hands.
The 27-year-old pushed and yelled at two young girls.
“The girl fell to the ground and the accused left the room and went to his hotel room,” court documents said.
Police were called to the hotel where the 27-year-old made admissions to following the girls into their hotel room and yelling at them.
I still don’t understand why the default reaction wasn’t to call the front desk to complain, but instead wait for them to come back and then chase them down the hall in my underwear.
Can‘t say i agree with your post’s title. There’s no plot here. He was pissed that he was being repeatedly disturbed by some teenagers. The situation is ridiculous and while he lost his cool, there’s no story here at all. These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.
I read a slightly different account … this article takes it for granted the MvdP laid hands on the girls. An article in Velonews says there is no evidence of him touching them on camera… however, there IS evidence of him denying touching them on camera when the girls mother confronts him … he then challenges her to call the police, which she did.
It goes without saying that you should never forcefully touch a minor. With that said, the real criminals here are the girls’ parents. My daughter is about the age of of these girls … I would be absolutely mortified if she was behaving like this and if any stranger yelled at her and chased her away I would have been exceedingly apologetic and embarrassed for her behavior.
I couldn’t be more empathetic toward MvdP being harassed like that the night before one of the biggest moments in his career. The frustrations must have been incredible, I have been in hotels on less important evenings, and have been wildly angry at noisy neighbors … and in those cases, they haven’t been directly harassing me, but rather just being overly loud. Also … he obviously should have called hotel security first.
I also find it incredibly odd that he was in a hotel by himself, away from his team without any security, a team official, a soigneur, literally anyone to look after him and help out. This guy is one of the biggest, if not THE biggest star in cycling on one of the biggest teams (Dutch) in the sport. If this was an NBA player or footballer of similar profile he would have had firewall around him wherever it was that he slept.
This story cracked my up on first hearing it. Having spend a fair number of nights in hotels either traveling with my kids’ sports teams, or inadvertently booking a room at a hotel full of kids attending some sports tournament, I can totally see me, or any other adult, ending up in a late night shouting match with group of kids playing ding dong ditch. Groups of kids + hotels = crazy.
I also could see having the cops called on me by crazy parents after lighting into their offensive kids …
As van der Poel gets older, he’ll learn to just suck it up and take it. Adults can’t win fights with other people’s kids
I’m not a lawyer but I don’t think it’s “alleged” once you’ve been convicted. It also comes from the police “fact” sheet. Adding to that if it was alleged the newspaper, for litigious reasons would have to say so. For reference. The Australian is one of the most reputable papers in the country. Along the lines of New York Times.
I’m not a lawyer but I don’t think you’re “convicted” until you’ve stood trial and been declared guilty by a judge or jury.
A police fact sheet tendered to the court sounds an awful lot like the documented accounting of the allegations that the girls or their parents made while being questioned by police, not like a conviction.
At this point I don’t get the sock height thing. There’s a rule. It’s a pretty clear rule. How does the team not supply socks of the correct height that must be worn?
I can’t imagine he’d be interested in going back anytime soon given that his chance at a world championships were ruined by a couple of girls who apparently never learned any manners
He wasn’t in a hotel by himself. When he got to Australia he was having a bit of a cold and was moved one floor down from the rest of the team. What also happens to be the room his girlfriend was staying. Which is also a bit uncommon.
As someone who used to spend a lot of time traveling for work, staying in hotels, I can totally sympathize with the noise issues. It also boggles my mind that there wasn’t an easier resolution via his team.
Certainly a lot of this could’ve been mitigated or prevented with better accommodations or support staff - and the fact that the Dutch team left him in a position to even theoretically have to deal with something like this is a major oversight. I’d wager the major teams aren’t staying at hotels at Worlds next year. Spring for a house rental
However, and since he’s basically pled guilty to the account linked above we must take that as the ‘true’ version of events, this is not a gray area on accountability.
It is not acceptable to resort to physical assault of someone over a noise complaint. Be they a minor or an adult is really immaterial. The fact that he responded this way instead of calling team management, the hotel management is the problem. He deserves the outcome in my opinion. I say this as an unabashed fan of his racing, and someone who had picked him as the winner before the race started
I think this is the elephant in the room. The team had a floor at the hotel. One we would have assumed has added security and was surrounded by Dutch support staff. MVDP requested he not bunk with his team mate and instead move to an unsecured floor to spend the night with his girlfriend because he had “a bit” of a cold. Pure speculation but I wouldn’t put it past anyone that this “bit of a cold” was added either after the fact or as a wink wink can I sleep with my girlfriend instead. The fact of the matter is if he was with the team none of this would have happened. Not that it excuses his behaviour and not that it excuses the behaviour of a 13 and 14 year old girl.
