He dreamed of becoming world champion in Australia, but the dream turned into a nightmare for Mathieu van der Poel, after an altercation with two teenage girls.

Arrested by the police on Saturday evening before being released in the early morning, the Dutchman took the start of the Worlds road race in Wollongong, finally won by the Belgian Remco Evenepoel, of which he was one of the big favorites.

But he dismounted after only thirty kilometers, exhausted and "mentally destroyed".

And he is summoned to court on Tuesday in Australia.

According to Christoph Roodhooft, the manager of his Alpecin-Fenix ​​team, the multiple cyclocross world champion has "not slept all night", after an incident which occurred at the Dutch hotel in Brighton-Le- Sands, in the southern suburbs of Sydney, revealed by the Flemish chain Sporza.

“Charged for two cases of assault”

“Around 10.40pm on Saturday, a man was involved in a verbal altercation with two teenage girls aged 13 and 14 at a hotel in Brighton-Le-Sands, New South Wales Police said in a statement.

According to the alleged facts, he pushed the two teenage girls, one falling to the ground and the other being thrown against a wall, causing a small scratch on her elbow.

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“The hotel management was notified and then called the police” and “a 27-year-old man was arrested shortly afterwards”, before being “taken to the Kogarah police station”, where he was “charged for two cases of assault,” police added.

Released on bail, Van der Poel will appear in court in Sutherland, also in the southern suburbs of Sydney, on Tuesday.

Van der Poel acknowledges the facts

At the start of the race in line, the grandson of Raymond Poulidor did not deny the incident.

"Yes it's true, there was a little argument," he told reporters.

“I wanted to go to bed early last night but there were lots of kids in the hotel hallway who kept knocking on my door.

After a while, I was fed up.

I told them, in a not very sympathetic way, to stop.

It was then that the police were called and took me” to the station, he said.

“Mathieu went to bed at 9 p.m. and at midnight there was still noise.

Children were playing in the hallway and knocking on his door.

He came out to tell them to stop but obviously not in the right way,” said Christoph Roodhooft, interviewed by the press.



Returning to his room "at four in the morning", Van der Poel then did not sleep a wink all night, according to his team manager.

“It's certainly not ideal, it's even a disaster, but there's nothing I can do about it.

I will do my best,” said the runner before taking the start.

Before quickly dismounting.



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