Teams & Riders The "MVP" Mathieu Van der Poel Road Discussion Thread

[Armchair Cyclist]

Who said van der poel was a hero? Of course it would be better that he didn't react by spitting in those belgian morons, but if it's true what they did to van der poel, i don't blame his reaction, he is human, he have emotions.

If someone spits in you, or punches you, you will not do nothing?

So you would be alright with these characters, or someone else who got collateral spittle, waiting for van der Poel afterwards to thump him?

And if not, what is the difference?

 

[Hugh Januss]

I can't speak for others here, but I'm not really an MVDP fan at all; give me Pogi all day long. I'd be supporting ANY rider in this situation, over a bunch of drunken a**holes. Maybe the 'usual suspect's are really the ones who think the riders should endure any and all abuse from fans, as long as they are entertained?

I support the riders right up until they sink to the level of the misbehaving fans. At that point the "fans" need to be found out and kicked off the venue and racers who respond in that way should be fined. A better response from VdP would be to go to the promoters along with the rest of the riders and say none of us will be at your next race unless you take real concrete measures to curtail this behaviour. Nobody is going to buy a ticket to watch a bunch of club racers flounder around. Actually, picturing that in my head as long as there's beer it might be entertaining, but I digress.

 

[CyclistAbi]

What if i'm getting the hard miles in the cyclingnews forum?

It shows.

 

[Hugh Januss]

So you would be alright with these characters, or someone else who got collateral spittle, waiting for van der Poel afterwards to thump him?

And if not, what is the difference?

For sake of argument (not that we need more of that) what if the hooligans that were throwing beer and insults at VdP had been identified and removed in the course of the lap and VdP spit at innocent fans who took their places in the front row? Would folks still want to justify it?

 

[saunaking]

The guy didn't spit on people randomly. I for one am not calling MVDP a hero, far from it. But I find it utterly shocking how casually some think he is just supposed to roll over and accept having beer (and possibly other stuff) thrown at him! Want to boo? Great, booing is fine, you're allowed not to like someone. But in my mind, throwing beer and urine at people crosses the line into assault, and no one should have to accept that kind of crap.

It's 2023 ffs, and way past time where we should be looking at the riders as mere cannon-fodder for our entertainment, having to accept whatever sh*t is thrown at them with absolutely no recourse. Are there better ways to respond? Certainly there are. But I would LOVE to see how sanguine some of you would be if you were in Mathieu's shoes; something tells me a lot of you wouldn't be so quick to just roll over. It's time organizers got a lot tougher with this crap; boo all you want, but the minute you're seen throwing anything at the riders, you're ejected from the venue, no refunds, no questions asked.

Why are you just making *** up?
THey threw urine, piss, jizz, semen, feces, beer at him??

In his interview he said they booed him all day since warm ups.
Thats it.

 

[saunaking]

I support the riders right up until they sink to the level of the misbehaving fans. At that point the "fans" need to be found out and kicked off the venue and racers who respond in that way should be fined. A better response from VdP would be to go to the promoters along with the rest of the riders and say none of us will be at your next race unless you take real concrete measures to curtail this behaviour. Nobody is going to buy a ticket to watch a bunch of club racers flounder around. Actually, picturing that in my head as long as there's beer it might be entertaining, but I digress.

This throwing urine thing i dont get. If this actually happened or is happening it is a SERIOUS CRIME and these *** need to go to jail.
But i suspect its just twitter made up bs.
Throwing beer at a rider is def a crime too though and warrants punishment

 

[Sciatic]

I don’t see an issue with spitting at all. If someone throws urine at me they can be happy I only spat at them

Can we get some reality checks on the urine story? I haven’t seen that substantiated

Yelling at you from the street below? How about if they were coming up to your office and throwing beer (and perhaps even urine!) on you? The people here thinking MVDP is supposed to apologize are f***ed in the head.

There’s the simple matter of being professional. I don’t care if he apologizes, but I firmly disagree with folks saying spitting is no big deal.

I’m not excusing the crowd behavior in any way, but it is ugly underside of spectator sports in the “home” stadiums or crowds of the local team, and probably has been that way since Roman amphitheater events. The only surprising thing to me is this is crude behavior is happening at a cycling event—which have always had friendly, non-belligerent crowds when I’ve attended. But obviously I haven’t been at Belgian cyclocross races. The crowds behavior today would seem pretty normative at many team sports stadiums. This is no excuse, but points out that it’s not unusual. What is unusual is an athlete responding this way.

 

[Volderke]

Laughing so hard at the usual suspects here. MVDP could eat a baby and they'd be like "I know it's a bad look but nobody is perfect and that baby was asking for it"

I”ll always defend the rider, even if I’m nowhere near to a fan of mvdp (I’m a Belgian and as a good Belgian I would root for Wva vs mvdp every day of the week, if only in the faint hope duels actually take place when mvdp is so strong).

It baffles me that the first thing some forum members bring up is the high moral ground the rider should have vs everything that’s thrown in his face (often quite literally). Riders should turn the other cheek when being slapped… well, not in my book. Their limits are tested in every race and while the provocation could have been only booing (and no beer or urine involved), it’s clear mvdp was fed up and had good reasons to be frustrated with “fans”. I condemn mvdp’s actions and especially what he did (spitting, instead of <insert better action>, but I can feel empathy: It’s a reaction on unsolicited actions.

Just like I would understand mvdp eating babies. He’s a titan per definition:

Saturn Devouring His Son - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

I”ll always defend the rider, even if I’m nowhere near to a fan of mvdp (I’m a Belgian and as a good Belgian I would root for Wva vs mvdp every day of the week, if only in the faint hope duels actually take place when mvdp is so strong).

It baffles me that the first thing some forum members bring up is the high moral ground the rider should have vs everything that’s thrown in his face (often quite literally). Riders should turn the other cheek when being slapped… well, not in my book. Their limits are tested in every race and while the provocation could have been only booing (and no beer or urine involved), it’s clear mvdp was fed up and had good reasons to be frustrated with “fans”. I condemn mvdp’s actions and especially what he did (spitting, instead of <insert better action>, but I can feel empathy: It’s a reaction on unsolicited actions.

So what about police, shop staff, social workers, and others who face abuse every day of their working lives? Is it OK for anyone and everyone to respond as they like?
Or is it only the rider that you will always defend?

 

[Berniece]

Did you really just leap from one person's response to provocation to generalisation about a whole culture? There's a word for that...

I’m Flemish myself. I know these people. They also can’t stand the Dutch national football team succeeding, or anyone doing better than WVA.

 

[Sciatic]

New reality TV idea: showdown between Belgian cyclocross fans and NY Yankees fans.

View: https://youtu.be/xGQTGw_DitY?si=GAE722G0Dq15RHqS

 

[dobrien]

I support the riders right up until they sink to the level of the misbehaving fans. At that point the "fans" need to be found out and kicked off the venue and racers who respond in that way should be fined. A better response from VdP would be to go to the promoters along with the rest of the riders and say none of us will be at your next race unless you take real concrete measures to curtail this behaviour. Nobody is going to buy a ticket to watch a bunch of club racers flounder around. Actually, picturing that in my head as long as there's beer it might be entertaining, but I digress.

We actually agree 100% here; I would welcome the riders having that kind of recourse and support. One problem is of course the riders would have to be very unified; most of these guys are pack filler with zero to no clout on their own. Easier said than done.
I disagree Mathieu is sinking to their level though; the idiot 'fans' go to the race with their actions planned, MVDPs response is heat of the moment. There is a difference.

 

[Volderke]

So what about police, shop staff, social workers, and others who face abuse every day of their working lives? Is it OK for anyone and everyone to respond as they like?
Or is it only the rider that you will always defend?

I would defend e.g. the jewelry shop owner who shoots a burglar after he has been robbed for the 3rd time in 3 years (real life example), and I would defend police all the same when they face life-threatening situations. At the same time I won’t defend all those people all the time. If it turns out mvdp spat at those people because of all frustrations of the past week with other fans booing and he‘s partly reacting on this group of fans that didn’t do all that much, it wasn’t proportional. But as said, I give him the benefit of doubt. I don’t give him any credit for what he did (the spitting), but whatever he would do, he is always losing. If he doesn’t do anything, those “fans” feel they can get away with it. If he does something, he gets the forum mob.

 

[Hugh Januss]

This throwing urine thing i dont get. If this actually happened or is happening it is a SERIOUS CRIME and these *** need to go to jail.
But i suspect its just twitter made up bs.
Throwing beer at a rider is def a crime too though and warrants punishment

How would one differentiate between beer and urine being thrown? Taste test?

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Let's keep Cyclo-cross out of Belgian hooliganism.

 

[scribers]

View: https://youtu.be/k70lG2fWqfI?si=rKVQB-4UTdWlN1O3

How is your training going this year, Chris? You're my darkhorse for top 10 at the tour!

 

[Volderke]

For sake of argument (not that we need more of that) what if the hooligans that were throwing beer and insults at VdP had been identified and removed in the course of the lap and VdP spit at innocent fans who took their places in the front row? Would folks still want to justify it?

Why would mvdp spit (or react in any way) at innocent fans? When innocent fans aren’t booing, nothing will happen. He spat because he heard them booing.

 

[scribers]

Then he's a moron

 

[Hugh Januss]

New reality TV idea: showdown between Belgian cyclocross fans and NY Yankees fans.

View: https://youtu.be/xGQTGw_DitY?si=GAE722G0Dq15RHqS

I'm from NY the Belgies wouldn't stand a chance.

 

[Volderke]

So you would be alright with these characters, or someone else who got collateral spittle, waiting for van der Poel afterwards to thump him?

And if not, what is the difference?

Errr. The difference is that those fans provoked. Mvdp reacted. Are you arguing that a reaction by mvdp is, all of a sudden, to be seen as a provocation? How much more can you twist reality?

 

[RedheadDane]

Why would mvdp spit (or react in any way) at innocent fans? When innocent fans aren’t booing, nothing will happen. He spat because he heard them booing.

Seems like some people think he only heard them as he went past them, not as he was approaching.

 

[Hugh Januss]

Why would mvdp spit (or react in any way) at innocent fans? When innocent fans aren’t booing, nothing will happen. He spat because he heard them booing.

Oh noes, they said mean things to him?

 

[Ilmaestro99]

Isn't booing a normal part of sports? Booing doesn't deserve to be spit at???

 

[Volderke]

Seems like some people think he only heard them as he went past them, not as he was approaching.

The thing is, he heard them booing every single lap + warming up (probably 2 laps warming up). That’s 9 times he heard and saw them.
The problem for mvdp is that he’s so good that he probably got bored during the race soloing. At such moments, one can get distracted by the audience and invest energy in those situations that he should ignore and avoid. If we had a duel with eg Wva, all of this would not have happened mvdp would have been concentrated on the race, and the fans can’t boo (mvdp) and cheer (for Wva) at the same time when they’re both passing at the same moment 😀

 

[Froome]

How is your training going this year, Chris? You're my darkhorse for top 10 at the tour!

Just getting the hard miles man....and getting some "hard" millions for my bank account.