Further details of the altercation and assault case involving Mathieu van der Poel and two teenage girls in a Sydney hotel have emerged, revealing more about what might have happened just hours before Van der Poel was due to ride the men’s road race in Australia.
A series of videos, apparently shot by the teenage girls involved, have been published online and sent to some media. Cyclingnews has seen one of the videos online, which appears to show a man chasing two people in the Novotel Brighton Resort hotel near Sydney, where the altercation took place.
Cyclingnews, like other media, has decided not to publish the video because it could identify the two young girls. The authenticity of the videos has not been verified.
Details of court documents have also been reported, partly contradicting what Van der Poel initially described as a “small dispute”.
The Dutchman was charged with common assault on Monday and pleaded guilty. He was fined $1,500 but intends to appeal. He was allowed to leave Australia on Monday but could be banned from returning to the country for up to three years.
Alpecin-Deceuninck team manager Christophe Roodhooft denied that the altercation had been physical but the Daily Mail and other media in Australia reported that a police statement of facts said the 14-year-old ‘ran into a corner and sat down covering her face’ while Van der Poel ‘grabbed her by both of her arms, squeezing them and pushing her against a wall while yelling at her’.
The girl ‘suffered a minor carpet burn graze to her right elbow and redness to her left forearm’.
The other teenager ‘was in the same room’ while Van der Poel chased the other girl. She ‘attempted to leave the room’ and van der Poel allegedly pushed her against a wall ‘using two open hands’ which caused her to fall ‘to the ground’.
According to the Daily Mail (opens in new tab), police arrived about five minutes later and Van der Poel was arrested and taken to Kogarah police station, where he refused to speak with legal services but agreed to a recorded interview.
He allegedly admitted entering the room and grabbing one of the young females by the arm, and stated he was ‘quite frustrated the girls had continued to make noise and knock on his room, (when) his girlfriend had previously asked them to stop’.
According to AD.nl (opens in new tab), a second video reveals details of an argument between Van der Poel and the girls’ parents, where he denies touching the girls. AD.nl claimed they have had…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…