Mathieu van der Poel soloed to a third consecutive Paris-Roubaix victory, equalling the winning runs set long ago by Octave Lapize and Francesco Moser but the Dutchman was angry as well as victorious after he was hit by a bidon thrown by a spectator 33km from the finish.
The bidon, which appeared to feature Visma-Lease A Bike branding, was hurled at Van der Poel towards the end of sector 8 at Templeuve. It hit him in the face.
Speaking to Sporza
“We can’t let this pass. It was a full bidon, and it hurt a lot. If I take that bidon on my nose, it’s broken,” he said, adding that he hopes his team will take action and press charges if the police don’t first.
“Hopefully, the police can identify the man because there has to be a trial for this,” he said.
“This is attempted manslaughter. If the UCI doesn’t take action, then we will do it with the team.”
Later, in the post-race press conference, Van der Poel said that the incident didn’t tarnish his victory but reiterated that he and his team would look to take legal action against the spectator.
“It doesn’t destroy the fun I had, but it’s not normal,” he said. “It was a full bottle, maybe half a kilogramme, and I’m riding at 50kph. It was really like a stone hitting my face.
“It’s not acceptable. When they throw beer, it’s also not acceptable, but that’s a different story. This is really something we have to take legal action against.”
Team manager Philip Roodhooft offered a cooler response on the infield at the Vélodrome André-Pétrieux in Roubaix. He said the spectator deserves “as little attention as possible”, not wanting to take anything away from Van der Poel’s achievement.
“These kinds of people don’t deserve that,” Roodhooft said. “We will first see if the authorities can identify someone.
“But we shouldn’t give it too much attention when you see how many tens of thousands of people do appreciate what Mathieu and others are achieving here.”