Roubaix, the woman with the hat identified: she had tried to make Van der Poel fall

Television footage of Paris-Roubaix showed a woman throwing a cap towards the rear wheel of Mathieu Van der Poel around 40 kilometers from the finish. The woman in question, according to revelations by De Standaard, was present in a VIP tent near the route where several companies had invited, as usual, guests waiting for the runners to pass. “We have been organizing this day for sixteen years,” says Olivier Orlans of Eventor. “When we saw the footage, we didn’t think the woman was part of our company. She wasn’t wearing a lanyard. To be able to enter our tent. But we asked all our customers if they knew the lady in question.”

A company informed Eventor that the woman was at the event at their invitation. “They told us that the woman would hand herself over (to the organization or to the police, ed.).” She is said to be a fan of Mathieu van der Poel, which would indicate that she did not point her cap at his motorbike on purpose. “If it was intentional, then obviously we, as an organization, think it’s outrageous,” Orlans says. “But everyone has the benefit of the doubt. Now it’s up to the woman in question to tell her story.” The French Union of Professional Cyclists (UNCP) will press charges against the woman and has the support of the international cyclists union CPA. “We will track down that person, that’s for sure,” Adam Hansen, president of the CPA, told Global Cycling Network. “But we depend on the national federations for judicial proceedings, because we are based in Switzerland.” According to the precedents, he would risk a fine of 1200 euros.