CYCLING star Mathieu van der Poel has claimed there “has to be a trial” after he was hit in the face by a water bottle in the Paris-Roubaix.
The 30-year-old claimed the incident was “attempted manslaughter” in a furious post-race interview.
Van der Poel won a third consecutive to equal the record set by Octave Lapize and Francesco Moser back in 1980.
But what should have been a day of celebration for the Belgian was marred by a flying water bottle thrown by a spectator around 33km from the finish.
Van der Poel was hit square in the face by the bottle and was left seething with the incident after his finish.
He told Sporza: “We can't let this pass. It was a full bidon, and it hurt a lot. If I take that bidon on my nose, it's broken.
“Hopefully, the police can identify the man because there has to be a trial for this.
“This is attempted manslaughter. If the UCI doesn't take action, then we will do it with the team.”
He later hinted that his team could take legal action against the spectator in his post-race press conference.
“It doesn't destroy the fun I had, but it's not normal,” he added.
“It was a full bottle, maybe half a kilogram, and I'm riding at 50kph. It was really like a stone hitting my face.
“It's not acceptable. , it's also not acceptable, but that's a different story. This is really something we have to take legal action against.”
Now less than 24 hours after the incident, a man has reportedly handed himself in to the Belgian authorities admitting to throwing the bottle.
The identity of the individual has not been made public.
Alpecin-Deceunick team manager Philip Roodhooft called on people to give the fans “as little attention as possible” when they cause issues like this.
He said: “These kinds of people don't deserve that. We will first see if the authorities can identify someone.
“But we shouldn't give it too much attention when you see how many tens of thousands of people do appreciate what Mathieu and others are achieving here.”
While former British road cyclist Adam Blythe labelled the spectators involved as “scumbags” on ‘ coverage of the race.
He slammed: “Just scumbags. I can't believe someone is doing this. It's just beyond belief.
“Good news is it didn’t affect him – but yeah, disgusting. Just do one. Don’t bother coming out.”
