"Van der Poel had every right to be angry, but not in that way" - Teenage girls' dad talks about World Championships altercation

Mathieu van der Poel is still under heat following the altercation that happened in the Dutch team's hotel the night before the main event of the World Championships, and the father of the teenage girls he had a spat with talked to the media back in Australia.

The Daily Mail Australia has reached out to the teenage girls' parents, their dad told the news outlet: “They have worked themselves into nests. Van der Poel had every right to be angry, but not in that way. They're slim little kids and he's huge. Look, I did certain things at their age too. The youngest had corona a few weeks ago, so they were happy to be able to enjoy themselves again," he argued.

On the eve of the World Championships Road Race, van der Poel's night was disrupted by two teenage girls who repeatedly knocked on his door, causing him to get increasingly unsatisfied and eventually enter an altercation with them, leading to minor injuries after being pushed by the Dutchman. The video has sparked a lot of controversy, with all sides losing in this situation, which has seen van der Poel get arrested.

“They got a little naughty. I also told them that they made a mistake," her dad admitted. "I see my daughter knocking on the door in the video and I can see from the way she walks away that she was scared. The eldest is a daredevil, but this shocked her. The youngest was also in shock.”

The incident saw van der Poel's race finished in it's first kilometers, an estimate €1000 fine and a temporary passport removal which saw him briefly fearing up to six weeks in Australia. All that is behind now, but the Dutchman was question about the subject upon arriving back in Europe, and the incident remains a hot topic within the world of cycling as the World Championships fade away.

The dad said in the interview that he only later understood who van der Poel was. “I heard just before the race started that he was a cyclist and eventually had to give up at the World Championships. Well, I hadn't done what he did. I can imagine my girls knocking on the door, but I could see from the images that they were scared," he concluded.