David van der Poel sees 'hotel incident' as turning point for Mathieu: "He was really sad"

David van der Poel has not been a rider for over two years now. Nowadays, the brother of Mathieu works as a riders agent. In an interview with AD, Van der Poel talked about the successes of his younger brother.

Van der Poel highlights one moment in Mathieu’s career as a turning point and the start of his successful period: the infamous 'hotel incident' the evening before the road race at the 2022 UCI Road World Championships in Wollongong, Australia. After an altercation with two teenage girls, the Dutchman spent a night in jail. He still started the road race but had to abandon not far into the race.

“I have never seen Mathieu so sad and uncertain,” he said about that moment. “He was really down. That’s when it hit him: from now on, I’m going to give everything. Train even harder and leave no chance untried. That incident in Australia caused disbelief and injustice. He was proven right in court, but the damage was already done.”

A little less than a year later, Van der Poel took his revenge at the World Championships. “The joy in Glasgow a year later when he finally claimed the rainbow jersey was immense. For me, his greatest victory. All the pent-up grief from a year earlier came out. That night in an Australian jail turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to him. In hindsight,” concluded David.