“This is attempted manslaughter!" - Mathieu van der Poel demands criminal investigation into bidon throwing 'fan' at Paris-Roubaix 2025

Monday, 14 April 2025 at 06:31

In the latest of a string of crowd trouble incidents against Mathieu van der Poel, the Alpecin-Deceuninck leader had a bidon viciously thrown right at his face by a 'fan' at the roadside, as he neared victory on Sunday afternoon at Paris-Roubaix 2025. Post-race, Van der Poel is now calling for serious action to be taken against the thrower of the bottle.

“This is attempted manslaughter!” a furious Van der Poel told Sporza afterwards, having previously had to deal with instances of crowd members spitting at him and even attempting to throw things into his wheels. “We can’t let this go. It was a full bottle, and it really hurt. If it had hit my nose, it would’ve broken it. Hopefully we can identify the person. I think there should be a trial — this was a direct hit to my face.”

With the all the cameras that surround the race nowadays, hopefully there will be someone that can recognise the man in question. As for the legal action Van der Poel is pressing for, he insists that one way or another, consequences must be brought to the bottle thrower. “Absolutely. If the UCI doesn’t take action, then I think our team will pursue it ourselves,” he stated firmly in conclusion.

Thankfully for Van der Poel and true cycling fans, the incident didn't make a telling impact on the result of the race. Having already been free of Tadej Pogacar an co at that point, Van der Poel managed to shake off the bidon scare and continue his relentless solo charge towards a third consecutive win in arguably the sport's most iconic one-day spectacle. Behind Van der Poel, it was the world champion Pogacar that claimed 2nd on his Paris-Roubaix debut, whilst Mads Pedersen outsprinted Wout van Aert and Florian Vermeersch for 3rd.

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Whoever threw this bidon at Mathieu van der Poel, I hope you get identified and spend some time behind bars tonight. 🙏 #ParisRoubaix pic.twitter.com/Hqns9kP4xz
— Benji Naesen (@BenjiNaesen) April 13, 2025

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4 Comments

paultryan2002 14 April 2025 at 09:27+ 280

Let us not go off the deep end for a start it us not attempted murder. At most common assault. Country dependent. Yes horrible to see and ob not a real fan of the sport or just a VDP hater. This has been going on for years look at Froome in the TDF and other sports such as football. That is soccer to the North Americans. Let the police do there job and hope the offender gets what is coming to him or even her.

Mistermaumau 14 April 2025 at 07:14+ 3552

I’m surprised how well he reacted, not sure many others would have noticed something coming from that angle. Worse than the fact it actually hit his face (the throwing speed wasn’t that high but the impact of him arriving against it at almost 50km/h makes incredibly hard) is what it could have done if it had landed badly and made him crash and you see it almost slipped under his back wheel. I have seen a peleton spread over the floor from a loose bottle.

cxfan25 14 April 2025 at 19:37+ 10

Shameful, hope they feel the full force of the law

slappers66 14 April 2025 at 19:37+ 227

Have the Gendarmes identified and arrested this scumbag!!