"People who do that really shouldn't come to races," Van der Poel said of the incident afterwards. “Unfortunately, I can't change what happened. It's disappointing, especially because it's not the first time this has happened to me.”
The incident took place roughly 30 kilometres from the finish, while Van der Poel was riding solo at the front of the race, en route to his eventual victory. A spectator, beer in hand, spat at him on the Karnemelkbeekstraat, with the moment was captured by TV cameras and the culprit's face subsequently broadcast all over the world in replays posted to social media.
As mentioned, Van der Poel has sadly been the target of multiple acts of aggression from supposed cycling fans recently. Just last weekend, during his history-making win at
Paris-Roubaix, he was struck in the face by a full water bottle thrown from the crowd in the cobbled section at Templeuve, again while leading the race solo.
That man too has now been identified and handed himself over to police. The result of that is likely to worse than just a fine however, especially after Van der Poel himself called the incident 'attempted manslaughter'.