A lot.
Clearly shit parents.
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Not just a 27 yo, but one who’s been a superstar (at least in Europe) his entire adult life.
He’ll learn, and he’s learning.
Good human? Bad human? I think that enough pro athletes exist, that I will only be a fan for the good humans, the one’s that I think are good role models for children and adults.
He admitted guilt in a court of law.
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Yes he did, but looking from the outside in, this was done moreso he could fly home on prebooked flights. I understand that the lawyers are now preparing to appeal the conviction.
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Perhaps he should be banned from by the UCI. It is embarrassing to all of his sponsors, and should be embarrassing to cyclists. Its not remotely entertaining. In US team sports, he would have been heavily penalized and/or suspended. Cycling doesn’t need this type of behavior, nor does it need fist fights at crits.
Lol. People are out for blood now. He made a mistake, he pleaded guilty, apologized, and paid a fine. Isn’t that enough?
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He did not plead guilty of pushing or hurting the teenagers.
Australian law prohibits any type of agression. Actually touching somebody or hurting somebody is not required. You can be fined for a shouting match…
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Yes. Finite. But ALOT!
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That’s the most I’ve seen reported of what MVDP actually did.
Sure, the kids were being snots, but he went a bit far.
I think a fine and probation is warranted.
Expunge if he gets through probation and life goes on.
Total reversal doesn’t seem right to me, but I:m no Ausssie judge.
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It’s not uncommon for things to be reassessed based on the impact on life.
I think it’s pretty reasonable, though I’d have thought a fine would still be warranted. I guess you have to either wipe the whole lot, or not.
100% agree…
look, at the end of the day, you never put your hands on a minor / someone else’s kid.
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Good thing it got overturned. He wouldn’t have been able to travel to the US or I assume several other countries with a criminal record.
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controversial take
I am in between the fence.
Plenty of **** kids around - just most recently seen a kid here in Dublin throw a brick into a crowded area aiming at a police car. police can’t do anything because they are kids.
I don’t blame them - more-so their parents - and more-so the system that doesn’t put either their parents or themselves accountable…
At the same time, I was a pretty troublesome kid; I had absolute 100% awareness of what I was doing - and If i did something wrong I was held accountable for my actions. I learnt this way - and wouldn’t have it any other way 
Oh and again in Dublin, most recently the ‘kids’ that stole a vehicle and recorded themselves pushing a cyclist off the road for fun…
Of course what the kids did in Australia is minor compared to throwing a brick at a police vehicle. If my parents caught me ding-dong-ditching someone which resulted in him missing one of the biggest cycle races in the world I’d have probably gotten a good whack! and deserved
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depends on what they do … not saying that the mvdp case is within or over the limit, that is still up for debate (recent info more in favour of mvdp if you ask me).
more extreme example, if some kid is bashing up your car, are you not allowed to grab them? I would definitely forcefully hold them until a parent or cop arrives. Again, knocking on doors is a different level as breaking someones property, but where the line is exactly is more difficult.
What is also difficult in the mvdp case is, what did he actually do? He did not hurt them on purpose (if the story checks out), but the pain/damage was accidental.
Kids also need to learn that their actions have consequences, if they where my kids, and I got this full story, I would say, I hope you learned something
it would be a different story if mvdp purposely hit those kids, that’s out of line, but grabbing them and telling them they shouldn’t be doing that is just doing what the parent were failing to do
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A rider of his caliber should not be staying in a hotel hours away from the race. I bet those kids didn’t even know there was a big race in town because it wasn’t in their town.
Next time, MVDP should rent a private villa and let any problems be handled by team staff.
Most of that is factually inaccurate…it was the team hotel (but he was not on the team floor by his choice), it was not hours away from the race and he had talked to the girls multiple times and had asked them to stop. It seemed they knew very well who he was.
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That’s what I read at the time. Still, rent a villa and let the team deal with any BS.