Mathieu van der Poel was not quietly sleeping on the eve of Sunday’s elite men’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships but was instead at the police station following an alleged noise disturbance and subsequent altercation at his hotel, according to a report in Sporza, who spoke to the rider before the Helensburgh start.
"It's true, yes,” Van der Poel said in the Sporza report. “There was a small dispute. It was about noisy neighbors and they are quite strict here.
"I wasn't back in my room until 4 o'clock. That's certainly not ideal. It's a disaster, but I can't change anything anymore. I'm trying to make the best of it."
Van der Poel abandoned the elite men's road race inside the first 35km of the 266.9km event.
As the peloton completed the coastal section of the race and passed the line in Wollongong – the line that a little less than 240km later will mark the finish – Van der Poel could be seen hanging off the back of the bunch with a teammate who appeared to be trying to help him through.
It was not much later as the race was in the Mount Keira circuit that the commentary team on the race broadcast said it had been confirmed that he was out of the race and a DNF showed up against his name on the live results.
“Sportif wise he was really disappointed," Christophe Roodhooft, director at his Alpecin-Deceuninck told media in Australia. "He didn’t sleep all night and he was mentally a bit broken of course as well."
"He was expecting a lot of this day and he did all he could in the last two months after his bad Tour de France," said Roodhooft in the interview, put out on Cycling Pro Net. "He'd found a bit of joy and happiness again in cycling and he was hoping to have a nice race today.”
Cyclingnews reached out to the New South Wales police regarding the incident at the hotel.
The New South Wales police said that while they cannot confirm who was involved in the incident, a man at the hotel where the Dutch team is staying was at 10:40pm on Saturday allegedly involved in a verbal altercation with two teenage girls who were aged 13 and 14.
“It’s further alleged the man then pushed both teenagers, with one falling to the ground and the other being pushed into a wall causing a minor graze to her elbow,” said NSW police in a statement sent to Cyclingnews.
“Hotel management were notified of the incident who then called police.
"Officers from St George Police Area Command attended and arrested a 27-year-old man shortly after. He was taken to Kogarah Police Station and charged with two counts of common assault.”
The statement added that he was granted conditional bail to appear in court on Tuesday 27 September 2022.
Van der Poel further explained the incident at the hotel, from his perspective, in an interview with Sporza.
"I went to bed early and many children in the hallway of my room found it necessary to knock on the door continuously. After a few times I was done with it. I didn't ask so nicely to stop. Then the police were called and I was taken," Van der Poel explained to Sporza.
Roodhooft, when asked if it was in any way physical, said "no, no" and also confirmed that Van der Poel's passport had been taken.
“It seems to be standard procedure for six weeks when you have something like that and you are not an Australian citizen," Roodhooft said. "That’s what I understood. He gets back after we’ve seen the responsible person.”
Cyclingnews has reached out to the Dutch team for further comment.
Van der Poel entered the men's elite race firmly among the list of favourites, as while there is nearly 4,000m of climbing the centrepiece of the race is the 12-corner heavy city circuits radiating out from Wollongong, with a short but punchy climb of Mount Pleasant.
The Dutch team, which was staying in a hotel in Sydney overlooking Botany Bay, have not had an easy run so far in the Road World Championships in Australia, with a disastrous mixed relay team time trial on Wednesday.
It started with the men's squad of Van der Poel, Bauke Mollema and Daan Hoole being quickly reduced to two as Mollema had a mechanical. Then things got even worse as the women's grouping of Annemiek van Vleuten, Ellen van Dijk and Riejanne Markus set out to try and make up time. Van Vleuten immediately crashed, fracturing her elbow. However, she bounced back to deliver a stunning victory in the elite women's road race on Saturday.
The first of the Dutch riders in the men's elite race was Bauke Mollema, who finished in 25th place in the group that came in to contest the lower steps of the podium after Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) swept up first place with a solo attack.
