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Mathieu van der Poel: Dutch Tour de France cyclist attacks young girls in a Sydney hotel

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A video has emerged showing the moment elite Dutch cyclist Mathieu van der Poel loses control and lashes out at two young sisters over a ‘knock and run’ prank at a Sydney hotel.

The footage, taken by a 12-year-old girl, shows her 14-year-old sister in the corridor of the Novotel Brighton Le Sands at 10.40 pm last Saturday.

Moments later, she is seen screaming and running into her hotel room with an angry van der Poel in pursuit after being pushed over the edge by the repetitive knocking on his hotel room door.

Footage shows the teen cowering, placing her hands over her face.

Moments later, the athlete corners her and pulls her by the arms until she falls and grazes her elbow.

Van der Poel, 27, then leaves the girl bleeding on the ground to chase another girl, aged 13, who he pushed against a hotel wall.

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The girl’s father, Emad, exclusively showed the video to Daily Mail Australia and supplied a photo of his daughter’s injury showing layers of skin rubbed off in a nasty carpet burn.

A 14-year-old girl (pictured) is seen in the corridor of the Novotel Brighton Le Sands at 10.40pm last Saturday night moments  before she is pursued by angry Dutch cyclist Mathieu van der Poel who was sleeping in the room opposite them

The girl cowered with her hands over her face until he cornered her (pictured), pulling her by the arms until she fell over and badly grazed her elbow

The girl cowered with her hands over her face until he cornered her (pictured), pulling her by the arms until she fell over and badly grazed her elbow

Mathieu van der Poel (pictured), who has won a stage on the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, had become fed up with the girls playing a 'knock and run' prank on his hotel room door

Mathieu van der Poel (pictured), who has won a stage on the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia, had become fed up with the girls playing a ‘knock and run’ prank on his hotel room door

Emad said the angry cyclist was also ‘yelling at my youngest, the 12-year-old, saying ‘were you doing this as well’ and she was freaking out. They are very shaken.

‘But they did get in trouble. They are in trouble,’ he said about the ‘knock and run’ prank the girls had engaged in before an enraged van der Poel lashed out at them.

‘He’s got every right to get angry, but not to do what he did.

‘They’re tiny little girls and he’s massive.’

Emad described the ‘nice weekend in town’ his wife, her friend, and the women’s four daughters were enjoying in the beachside hotel before Van der Poel’s extraordinary assaults resulted in his arrest, his withdrawal from a championship race and then fleeing Australia.

‘My wife’s angry that he’s fled the country as well as what he did,’ Emad said.

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The weekend began on Saturday when the two adult women and the two sets of girls, all aged between 12 and 14, arrived at the Novotel to spend the evening in two rooms on the ninth floor.

Unbeknownst to the girls, in Room 920, they were almost directly across the corridor from cyclist Van der Poel and his girlfriend, Roxanne Bertels in Room 930.

The cyclists competing in the final event on Sunday of the UCI Road World Championship had been housed in hotels across Sydney due to room shortages.

After dinner, the two mothers went into their shared hotel room, while the four young girls began to play up next door.

Van der Poel's girlfriend Roxanne Bertels (pictured together) had asked the girls to stop before the cyclist waited until the last knock and then stormed out of his room and chased two of the girls into their shared room

Van der Poel’s girlfriend Roxanne Bertels (pictured together) had asked the girls to stop before the cyclist waited until the last knock and then stormed out of his room and chased two of the girls into their shared room

The young girls (pictured) who were caught up in the terrifying incident last Saturday in Sydney

The young girls (pictured) who were caught up in the terrifying incident last Saturday in Sydney 

The girls' father, Emad, (pictured) said his daughters had been 'a bit naughty' and that the cyclist 'got every right to get angry, but not to do what he did'

The girls’ father, Emad, (pictured) said his daughters had been ‘a bit naughty’ and that the cyclist ‘got every right to get angry, but not to do what he did’

‘Look, I did things when I was their age, but the younger one had Covid only a few weeks ago and this was their time out,’ Emad said.

‘They were excited … but then they were a bit naughty.’

Police facts reveal Roxanne Bertels told the girls to stop their game after multiple knocks on the door, but that Van der Poel waited until the last knock and then stormed out of his room and chased two of the girls into their shared room.

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The cyclist, who has won a stage on the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia, plead guilty on Monday before Magistrate Hugh Donnelly in Sutherland Local Court.

He was ordered to pay $1500 in fines for two charges of common assault.

The cyclist had earlier withdrawn one hour into the 266.9km championship race following his 4am release from police custody on the morning of the event.

Emad said the younger sister of the 13-year-old the Dutchman pushed to the wall filmed the assaults on her phone.

The girls' father, Emad, exclusively showed the video of the incident to Daily Mail Australia and supplied a photo of his daughter's injury, with layers of skin rubbed off in a nasty carpet burn (pictured)

The girls’ father, Emad, exclusively showed the video of the incident to Daily Mail Australia and supplied a photo of his daughter’s injury, with layers of skin rubbed off in a nasty carpet burn (pictured)

He said he later told his daughters ‘you are lucky he is famous’ which may have eventually stopped Van der Poel from going any further.

Emad, who works as a tradie in western Sydney, said he didn’t learn about the attacks until Sunday morning, when the two mothers took their daughters to a doctor ‘just in case’ there were more serious implications from the assaults.

Emad said it was just before the race began and when he heard that Van der Poel had dropped out after starting it that he ‘felt sorry for him, but I wouldn’t have done what he has done’.

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‘I can picture my daughter knocking on the door, but I could tell by the way she ran she was very frightened,’ he said.

Emad said despite Van der Poel’s violent overreaction, his two girls know they have done the wrong thing and they ‘won’t be seeing the other two girls for a while’.

‘The older one is a daredevil, but that shook her up,’ he said.

Emad said his daughters were normal girls who were ‘good at school, although they can always be better’ and loved netball, craft ‘and cycling, would you believe it’.

Source: Daily Mail

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