VIDEO: Middle fingers and thrown beer for Mathieu van der Poel at Oude Kwaremont; race organizer wants consequences for spectators
CyclingTuesday, 02 April 2024 at 10:57
Cycling is a sport where fans can get extremely close to athletes for free but that is not always a positive thing. As has happened in the past, Mathieu van der Poel was bombarded by beer and middle fingers... This time at the Tour of Flanders, one individual video shows the difficult conditions that the World Champion had to navigate to win the Belgian monument.
Unfortunately this has happened in the past in similar races, but mostly cyclocross. Being the biggest rival of Belgian Wout van Aert and racing in Belgium, some fans within the country do not have a liking to the Alpecin-Deceuninck rider who dominated the competition this Sunday. A video recorded by a spectator shows van der Poel in a matter of seconds having middle fingers pointed at him and then being thrown beer by two other spectators in a matter of a couple seconds.
Dutch journalist Thijs Zonneveled reports that Flanders Classics CEO Thomas van den Spiegel - who organizes the Tour of Flanders - has said that there is the intention to identify and punish - most likely through a compensation - the spectators that take part in such activity.
Fellow pro Thomas de Gendt responded also to this unusual video, writing: "Waiting for 6 hours in the rain and cold and then throwing beer at the leader. Some people have strange hobbies."
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- No... it's not an important climb stage: after the last climb there is about 20 km almost flat. Enough to reunite the main GC riders. The real first hard climb stage is the next (stage 16: Piazzola sul Brenta - San Valentino)
maria2024202425-05-2025 - Is he one of those people attending the race to boo, throw beer or spit at MvDP?
KerisVroom25-05-2025 - (Just notice how long this is. Sorry.) I wonder why people rank van der Poel above Pogacar as a classics rider, like Museeuw does. Using Procyclingstats for what follows: Pogacar has 22 classics wins, of which 9 are monuments and 19 are at world tour level, and then there’s also one national and one world championship. His first classics win was 2021. Van der Poel has 26 classics wins, of which 8 are monuments and 17 are at world tour level, and there are 2 national and one world championship. His first classics win was in 2014. If we compare only the seasons from 2021 to now (meaning, from Pogacar’s first season with a classics won forward), van der Poel has 16 classics wins, of which 7 are monuments and 12 are at world tour level, and there’s a world championship. If we compare the seasons since Pogacar turned pro in 2019, then they are even at 22 classics wins, back to the 9 vs. 8 comparison of monuments, more of Pogacar’s are at world tour level (19 vs 16 of their 22), and they are even with 1 national and 1 world championship each. So it is damn close, but when I look at the stats alone, Pogacar comes out as the better classics rider in a head to head comparison, except at San Remo and Roubaix (his 4th place in a 2 man sprint at his first Flanders race has been more than rectified since). And yes, Pogacar will basically always lose the sprint at the end of a race to van der Poel, which requires him to use different tactics. So I get it, van der Poel is amazing, I absolutely love watching him race, I still think his Amstel win is one of the more superhuman feats I’ve seen in biking, and I got into CX and mountain biking because of him. But Pogacar, on the road, has a better head-to-head record. Sure, he also wins grand tours, but does that make him a worse classics rider? It shouldn’t. His record shows how amazing he is.RidesHills25-05-2025
- Some of those streets are the width of a car, this is stupid, I hope they don't take out the Tour winner.awp25-05-2025
- They have a serious problem getting Del Toro out of the pink jersey. He can win it!
DareDevil25-05-2025 - They should have waited in my view. Poor sportsmanship.Mart25-05-2025
- Would love to see him pull it off. Seems like a thoroughly decent guy.mobk24-05-2025
- Shame that, lads a natural, he'll have his time!
leedorney24-05-2025 - Whaaa? What’s the problem with mvdp? He’s just as classyCrashjames24-05-2025
- WvA says it right as always, great guy better then MvdP anyhow 👍leedorney24-05-2025
These cowards wouldn't do a damn thing if they were face-to-face with MVdP. Alcohol makes stupid people more stupid.
Ok the guys dominating cycling/the classics but why do this I don't know, I found the tour of Britain boring last year but I didn't go get myself on film with a big placard! Like De Gent says why wait 6hrs in the rain for that...prosecute them AND SEVERELY
I think in their mind they can influence the riders’ psyche and affect his performance and they go through this extreme effort and cost out of patriotic duty and getting away from the wife who’s always the boss at home, those who actually manage to get one.
He is the Verstappen of Cycling, so...
Extreme stupidity combined with alcohol can be a dangerous combination. I'd say that fines and a good public shaming are in order.
Weird hobbies? How about no life to live? Who did they come for, do they even know?
Don’t understand the punishment idea that’s not explained well, anyone here who can make sense of that?
I think the easiest and best solution would be to reward people who lead to identification, once these guys know everyone will start filming them they’ll soon return to what they used to be doing, probably going to football matches where they’re already known.
Ironically, MvdP works for Belgians and « their » Wout works for the Dutch, the « traitor » ;-)
All right-thinking people want consequences for this. Anyone who touches a rider, either directly or though something thrown, deserves a fine or worse.