Images of Mathieu van der Poel hotel incident circulate on the internet

Video images of Mathieu van der Poel’s hotel incident are circulating on the internet. The grainy footage, filmed by one of the teenage women involved, shows what looks like a push. The images have been sent to multiple media, including CyclingFlash sent.

Van der Poel had a disastrous World Cup in Australia, where he ended up in jail the night before the road race. He was arrested after an incident in which he allegedly pushed two teenage girls into the hotel of the Dutch team.

The young ladies tried to keep him awake by banging on the door of his hotel room several times. Van der Poel decided to react himself, which resulted in an arrest and a nightly visit to the police station. He didn’t return to the hotel until around 4:00 am, without his passport confiscated. A few hours later he got out of the road race after 35 kilometers.

Due to the age of the young women, we have decided not to publish the video images.

The judge in Sutherland Local Court deemed ‘common assault’ proven and fined Van der Poel $1500. Good news: Van der Poel got his passport back and is now on the plane home.

Video footage
The video images that have surfaced on YouTube and Twitter show an incident that is very similar to what 27-year-old Van der Poel has now been convicted of. The footage shows a young woman getting ready to bang on the room door. She calls ready to the second woman who is filming from the door frame of her own room, opposite Van der Poel’s.

The women are startled when the door suddenly opens. They scream and run back into their room. At the end of the video, which lasts only eight seconds, a nearly naked man appears who seems to touch the head of one of the ladies with his left arm. Whether this is a push can’t be made out with certainty from the grainy video.

The images do correspond to the statements that Van der Poel and his entourage have given in various interviews. For example, it concerns two young women who stayed in the room opposite him, there is an unnecessary banging on his room door, the carpet and furnishings (blue chair) match photos of the hotel on Booking.com and the incident of the possible push visible.

It is striking that the lady who bangs on the room door is just not recognizable in the picture with her face. The video also ends abruptly after eight seconds, just as Van der Poel has entered their room. It is not possible to see how the incident ends in the images posted on social media.