Bottle thrown at Van der Poel at Roubaix, hits him in face | Video

This bottle, circled, was thrown from the crowd and hit Mathieu van der Poel in the face, with an inquiry likely to commence into the incident

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) has been struck in the face by a bottle thrown from the crowd on the roadside at Paris-Roubaix.

The Dutch rider, and defending champion, was leading the race solo at the time, with the bottle coming at him, and hitting him right in the face, on sector 8 of pavé at Templeuve, as he was being chased by Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).

The world champion crashed entering the pavé sector and was chasing Van der Poel at the time of the bidon throwing incident.

Van der Poel, who went on to win the race, made it clear in an interview with Sporza after the race, that he wanted action taken.

"We can't let this pass. It was a full bidon, and it hurt a lot. If I take that bidon on my nose, it's broken," he said. "Hopefully, the police can identify the man because there has to be a trial for this. This is attempted manslaughter. If the UCI doesn't take action, then we will do it with the team.

"It doesn't destroy the fun I had, but it's not normal. It was a full bottle, maybe half a kilogramme. And I'm riding at 50kph. It was really like a stone hitting my face.

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"It's not acceptable. When they throw beer, it's also not acceptable, but that's a different story. This is really something we have to take legal action against."

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