Anatole Leboucher will not soon forget his last training ride in Spain. The French amateur rider encountered none other than Mathieu van der Poel and Julian Alaphilippe along the way. What followed was a sprint against the Dutch cycling star, but this almost had serious consequences for Van der Poel.
Leboucher initially didn’t plan to approach the two world champions but eventually mustered the courage to do so. "At first, I wanted to just pass them, but once I was alongside, I decided to ask Van der Poel if he wanted to do a few sprints," he recalls now in an interview with DirectVélo about his memorable cycling afternoon.
Van der Poel accepted the challenge with a broad smile. "I clearly told Mathieu that he had to give it 100%, that there was no point in faking it, and he was definitely motivated," says Leboucher, who on Monday will race against top sprinter Paul Magnier and could certainly use some sprint training.
Another French amateur rider, Léo David, got his phone out of his back pocket to film it. However, things didn’t go as planned. Footage that has since been widely shared on social media shows how, on the first attempt, MVDP’s chain slips. This still brought plenty of laughter among Van der Poel and the others.
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Then they tried again, but this time things really went wrong. When accelerating, Van der Poel pushed too hard, lost control of his bike but miraculously avoided a crash. "I didn’t really understand what he was doing at that moment," Leboucher states. "There was no third attempt in the end, but we watched the video again and he (Van der Poel, ed.) could still laugh about it."
Viral
The video in question was shared shortly after on social media – including Instagram – and quickly went viral. "Accounts with millions of followers decided to share the video and articles appeared about it. I was even called by Belgian journalists for some details.," Leboucher explains.
The Frenchman is mainly relieved that it all ended without incident. "I would have felt terrible if he had crashed and it had messed up his future cyclocross goals. It wouldn’t have been directly my fault, but I was the one who suggested sprinting."
Mathieu van der Poel
