New footage of spectator incident with Van der Poel at Paris-Roubaix
 

Looks like hat was purposely thrown at Paris Roubaix :no:

https://twitter.com/UrbanSteel/statu...44210993033324


https://www.stickybottle.com/latest-...roubaix-video/

Yeah that’s textbook malicious intent. Hope they throw the book at her. What a POS

right?!?! what is wrong with people???

Absolutely!!! They need to make an example of individuals who purposely do things that could possible cause harm. Put her in Jail and give her a huge fine!

her guffawing and yucking it up isn't a great look. I spent 18yrs in the criminal justice system, here in the US that is a tough one. Reasonable doubt and all that..... No punishment just emboldens people who are already making awful decisions as athletes go hurdling past, I am hopeful there are some actual repercussions other than just social justice.

Yikes...really disgusting...hope she gets charged with attempted assault or whatever might fit there...

Cycling Hooligan....prolly Pidcock's aunt.

Clearly malicious. Hope they nail her. Just unbelievable behavior.

Sounds like our former president. Hmmm...

equal time "or our current president" lol

I have strong feelings on political matters, but probably best to leave it out of this thread unless the major candidates are competing in the cobbled classics themselves. :banana:

fully agree

Way to go you two..let's get this thread locked...lol...not...

You 'fully agree? Then delete your post. Same for Peter P.

All right, enough with the political BS

Stirring that pot generally does not end happily for those involved.

BK

I saw it happen live and exclaimed to my wife in the other room, "Someone just threw a hat at MVDP's wheel!" Unreal how she thought it was hilarious. wth

Thankfully VdP was going so fast at the time that his spokes acted like a solid barrier to the hat! :)

But kidding aside, what an awfully malicious (stupid?) thing to do.

I'm guessing it was more stupid than malicious--seems like something a child would do "just to see what would happen." Doesn't mean she shouldn't face consequences for it, but it's just too odd to be anything but stupid.

Intent
 

Depending on which viewpoint footage you view ,it’s obvious there was real intent to get the hat in amongst the spokes/fork and the look on her face isn’t some naive childish giggle it’s more along the lines of ‘well I tried ‘ ,funny enough decades ago I went to Paris to watch the worlds cyclo cross which his father Adrie won and it was the first time I’d encountered the Dutch/Belgie/French business of throwing beer and spitting on the athletes as they passed [warning political content :- to paraphrase Clinton I neither inhaled nor partook ]

I agree - she just looked like a stupid person indulging a whim and ignoring what what the potential consequences would be. I have a 12yr old boy, and he wouldnt have done that, which says something.

Her lawyer comment didn`t age well....

"No right-thinking person would do something like that, right?”

From what I saw she's trying the "I had a few drinks, give me a break" defense which is not a strong defense.

MvDP got taken down a couple of years ago by fan detritus, right?

Make old girl ride down a hill on a bike and have someone put an aluminum bat in the front spokes. That'll cure it. While we're at it, use the bat on anyone who light flares or incendiary devices around bike races. That stuff is toxic.

It was clearly intentional and spectacularly stupid but I don't believe it was malicious.

As cyclists, we all know that if the cap had got jammed between the tyre and the fork, Mathieu could have gone over the bars, but I suspect she wasn't that clued up, maybe not even slightly - if she had been, she would likely have been scared to even try it, given the prospective consequences for her as well as for the rider.

Don't know why she did it, she probably doesn't either, especially now, but I really don't think it was with the intention of bringing the big man down. How you take it from there, though, is up to you.

When I first heard of this several days ago, in my mind's eye, I pictured a man as the culprit. #stereotyping Does this make me guilty of misandry?

Not sure I can follow this logic... Do something that could seriously injure or kill a rider in the middle of a crowd of spectators, but it is ok because it was done for fun?

I'm guessing the thought is similar, in an extreme way, to murder and negligent homicide.. the former was done with intent and the latter was a result of someone's negligence.. wasn't done on purpose, but the person is still held accountable.. certainly the lady threw the hat on purpose, but did she intend to harm the rider (maybe she did) or just thought "it would be fun"? at least that's my very uneducated understanding of negligence from watching some tv and taking a business law class.. so take it with a grain of salt.. ;)

the act was wrong and I hope she is held accountable for sure!

I respectfully disagree. If the woman had no idea a hat could send the rider over the bars, *what was the purpose of flinging a hat at his bike*?

If you watch the first video of the frame-by-frame slow motion, you can see she even timed the throw to ensure the hat hit the front wheel. It was intentional, malicious, and the old creep knew exactly what she was doing.

In my state I could make a great argument that anyone at a cycling event would have some knowledge of how things work and would know that tossing the hat AT the wheel would/could cause a wreck. Negligence and intent have an extremely gray line between them.

I saw an article a few days ago on a Belgian site that showed a different cell phone angle of the women. She actually walks up, looks left and right to see if anyone is watching her, then aims and shortarms the cap at the wheel. Clearly premeditated. The article also said that in Flanders, there is a specific law that says when a cap is thrown into spokes of a bike, the cap is considered a deadly weapon. This seems in order for a cycling nation like Belgium to have that one covered.

The law specifically refers to a cap? That seems oddly specific, as though it was written for just this event. Is there a history of throwing caps into bike wheels in Belgian races?

As a gesture of good sportsmanship, van der Poel should send the perp the name of the attorney that had his common assault conviction overturned in Australia…

This guy must've run amok in Flanders before England's finest took him down:
https://i.redd.it/nzsx8bc964071.gif

+1 on this. The other angle (from behind MVDP) wasn't as clear, but the front angle clearly shows her timing her throw and aiming the hat towards his wheel. If she just tossed the hat up, trying to hit him or even have him run into it like someone throwing rice at a wedding it might've been excusable as idiocy/ignorance, but she frisbee-tossed it into his spokes. That's malicious intent.

That's what made me chuckle. Only in cycling mad Flanders.

Seems like something out of a short story by Borges. It really is funny.

I try and give folks the benefit. But the more I watch it seems they certainly did that on purpose.

Wow. GTFO with that crap. fines ban etc. I cant imagine someone so ignorant of cycling... and basic physics would then arrive at a bike race only to toss something at the race leader.

why do some fans of whatever team boo when say a slugger on the opposing team, whos batting over .500 atm comes to bat.

The one angle I saw in a video I could have been convinced it was a fan exited and waving a hat which they lost control of but that is very clear. Very clearly she (I think) tossed that hat into his front wheel.

She wouldn't like me on that jury. I doubt I'd get past process as a juror..

I see a lot of 'burn the witch' reactions about this, but it looks like the hat harmlessly bounced off his bike and he MVdP continued without incident. What am I missing here?

Sure, the woman caused no damage. But if I fire a gun at you and miss, I have still committed a crime. I'm not off the hook because I attempted and failed. The outrage associated with this woman's actions are in the same vein.