They are also young. A 45 year old with kids would have handled this much differently than the 27 year old did. We all look at this like we were dealing with children, MVdP was probably having flashbacks to fighting with his obnoxious little sister a few years ago.
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Hello. Nice to meet you. I’ve never had a fake ID in my entire life. I didn’t drink alcoholic beverages until I was 20 years old and had pretty much given them up by the age of 26.
I’m an old geezer now. 
While this is all true it is intended with friendliness and not being a smart alek.
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One perspective that seems to have been lost is that these kids were knocking on doors at a semi-reasonable hour (9-10pm from what I’ve read). It’s not like they were doing this at 3am.
Did the kids know that a world champion cyclist was having a big race the next day and needed to go to bed by 9am? No. They were just being dumb kids.
MVDP could have:
called a team director
called a soigneur
called the hotel
called the police
yelled at the kids
had his girlfriend talk to the girls
talked to their parents
talked to the girls nicely explaining that they had a big race tomorrow
booked a private villa much closer to the event
He could have done a hundred different things before chasing and intimidating a couple of teenage girls. He’s got no valid excuses here.
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In his defence. And I’m not condoning his behaviour. His girlfriend did speak to them. The parents were staying in the hotel room next door to the kids. It had been going on for three hours. And if you watch the video the girl is slamming her hand on the door.
I still think he should have been on the floor with the Dutch team. That would have solved everything.
Where is that video? I haven’t seen a link. Still, MVDP could have done any number of other things rather than chase some teenagers around.
Edit: I see the videos on youtube. Is that even him? Probably but those are horrible videos.
A good girl friend would have gone out and guarded the door without even being asked until the kids went to bed. I’d dump her is I was him.
Having traveled a lot with youth sports teams, its an unfortunate reality that you end up picking your battles. Usually there was a curfew of 10 or 11 for the teenagers and some running around the halls was tolerated prior to lock up. That being said, all the parents I traveled with would have instantly imposed a cone of silence around any guest who asked for quiet, especially a pro athlete.
And also he doesn’t have children yet of his own. That will give a person a much different perspective. But still, even though I’m a firm believer humans don’t mature until 30, he not the new kid on the block either. He’s been a pro and in the spotlight for long enough to know better.
I bet that Alaphilippe didn’t stay in some crappy hotel 1.5 hours away from the race!
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The last door knocking was at 10:40pm according to court docs.
The entire incident reminds me of the saying “two wrongs don’t make a right, but 3 lefts make a right.” Sorry I can’t help myself with injecting a little humor.
It is truly sad, it doesn’t matter if pressure/stress caused MVDP to lose his shit and doing something that he will regret for the rest of his life. He did it.
No excuses. He is paying the price for his actions.
The latest from MVDP himself:
and one of the fathers:
shoulda coulda woulda. It sucks to be MVDP right now. Sucks to be the other parties right now.
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It does. Calling the front desk would have been best. I call the front desk and move if I can hear the person peeing next to me. I cant stand noise.
Controlling your kids (as a person with 3 boys) is also something that should have been done.
Given it is two girls it is a problem. If he would have done it to my two boys I would have apologized for my kids being disrespectful and then made them get on TR to do some V02 Max repeats.
My two girls. Yeah, probably would not have gone well even though they were at fault. I would still would have dealt with my kids and moved on. No cops were needed when you kids are going around banging on doors of sleeping guests.
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Ha!
One father of two of the teenage girls, identified as “Emad,” admitted the teenagers were out of line, but told The Daily Mail Australia that Van der Poel also reacted too strongly.
“He’s got every right to get angry, but not to do what he did. They’re tiny little girls, and he’s massive, But they did get in trouble. They are in trouble,” the father said of his daughters.
That’s the first I’ve heard from the parents. Good to see accountability has been taken on all sides.
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He should have been the adult in this kerfuffle.
The parents should be questioned on how they let two kids wondering in a hotel full of strangers for that long.
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There was no accountability!. Had this event happened in the land of the free, MVDP would have gotten a solid beatdown or a fat lawsuit. He got neither, he deserved both.
On a lighter note, is this the first time a professional road cyclist was described as massive in a news article?
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that made me laugh, I’m a little taller than MVDP and weight about 20kg more. What does that make me LOL. I’ll answer that… a clydesdale cyclist that needs another 70watts at threshold to be anywhere close to competitve in races. I was a UCI anti-doping chaperone during Stage 5 of the Tour of California in 2018. Had to chaperone TJ Van Garderen and his lovely wife was along on the ride to/from the press conference. TJ and I are about the same height, and I felt massive next to him. The man has no arms or chest.
Tall people can be intimidating. Just ask my cat.
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Per the article, the dad wasn’t there. It was two sets of kids and the two moms were the responsible adults present. Also, the other dad did NOT take any accountability. Basically said, what you do expect kids to do at 10pm.
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Kind of funny though not fair to the hotel.
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I was thinking the same. He is massive!
Look, wake me up. I am going ballistic. And that is just waking me up and ruining my TR workout. 98% of people would be upset.
I am not calling any cops. That is just me. If it is my daughters I can have a word with him as a person. Don’t touch my kid(s). Go back to bed you massive rider you!
Maybe Sir Chris Hoy in his prime 
These are not little kids but teenagers in high school (second/third grade?). The teenagers were known for playing this game when staying in hotels. I’m guessing they have been told off before but never faced consequences for their extremely annoying behaviour.
The whole point of the game is to get a reaction out of the person you’re bothering. They got what they asked for after bothering somebody for 3 hours and repeatedly being told to stop. I’ve seen no evidence of MVDP hurting/pushing them and I find it bizarre that the police would get called over this.
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