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

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.