Spectator blows vape smoke into Van der Poel's face in Hofstade | Video

Mathieu van der Poel turns his head away from a spectator whose vape smoke hit him in the face on the final lap in Hofstade as he rode towards his fourth win from four this season

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) has made it four wins from four since his recent return to cyclocross action, winning X²O Badkamers Trofee Hofstade from Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) on Monday.

Van Aert crash early in the race, losing Van der Poel's wheel and never getting back to him, eventually finishing 2nd at 48 seconds. Niels Vandeputte (Alpecin-Deceuninck Development Team) was 3rd, at 1:04 and just one seconds up on Thibau Nys (Baloise Glowi Lions).

However, while world champion Van der Poel was collecting his fourth win of the campaign - after his three World Cup victories over the last week - he had to contend with an unsavoury incident when a spectator blew smoke from vape right into his face.

He turned his head away and continued on with his effort, on the final lap of the hour-long race, though at the end of the race he remarked on the incident when speaking to journalists.

Advertisement

"Yes, I felt it. That was right after the finish, wasn't it? I don't know if it was intentional, because I didn't see," Van der Poel told Belgian outlet Sporza when commenting on his win.

Related News

It is the latest incident during which he has been abused or had beer thrown at him or been verbally abused, at both cyclocross and road events. He also lost his cool in Hulst two years ago after spitting in the direction of spectators abusing him.

Christoph Roodhooft, Van Aert's team manager, was unimpressed, saying: "I didn't see it, but those are silly things. I don't really want to say anything more about it. Isn't reacting to something so stupid just plain stupid? It's simply inappropriate and improper.

"It's a shame that something so small gets so much attention. All the riders were very positive, this is a fantastic course... That's much more important to take home than an action like this."

Related News