Last Saturday (30), in Hulst, in the Netherlands, during one of the stages of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Cyclocross World Cup, Mathieu van der Poel was fined for having reacted negatively to a group of spectators who booed the athlete’s performance.
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The cyclist’s action of spitting on the group left the public perplexed as behavior of this type is not normally seen in competitions. However, Mathieu van der Poel stated that he heard spectators ridiculing his performance throughout the stage and, therefore, acted in this way.
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On social media, the institutions that organized the event spoke out against the cyclist’s action: “These types of spectators do not belong in our race. More than 22,000 spectators watched as the Netherlands added color to both elite stages, with winners Puck Pieterse and Mathieu van der Poel taking center stage. Unfortunately, there was also a dark side to this beautiful day. One that certainly eases the feeling of euphoria.”
“Some among these thousands of other supporters considered it necessary to not just insult and throw beer at Mathieu van der Poel. two press photographers were also carelessly pushed into the water by a band of miscreants. As an organization, we are very clear, these types of people do not belong at our event or any other cyclocross course or sporting competition,” said the statement.
Cases in which spectators harm and ridicule competitors in big matches are unfortunately common in the sports category. Athletes like Geraint Thomas, Chris Froome, Mark Cavendish, Sven Nys have been attacked several times in different ways.