Man hands himself in after bottle hits Van der Poel

Mathieu van der Poel was won world titles in road racing, gravel cycling and cyclo-cross

A man has handed himself in to Belgian police after a water bottle was thrown at Mathieu van der Poel's face during Sunday's Paris-Roubaix race.

Dutch rider Van der Poel was struck while leading with 23 miles to go as he raced along a narrow cobbled track lined with spectators.

The man handed himself in to a West Flanders police station on Monday.

Van der Poel, who went on to win the race for a record-equalling third time in a row, later described it as like "getting hit by a stone".

Speaking after the race he added: "The bottle was nearly full and weighed half a kilo and when someone throws it like that it's not nothing."

Public prosecutor Filiep Jodts told BBC Sport on Monday: "We can confirm that the man presented himself to the police.

"An official report was drawn up, in which his statement was recorded. The Public Prosecution Service will decide in the coming days what action should be taken."

Cycling's world governing body the UCI said in a statement it will "explore, in conjunction with the competent authorities, all the legal channels at their disposal so that such behaviour is duly and severely punished".

Van der Poel shrugged off the incident to win the Monument - one of the sport's big five one-day races - by more than a minute from his great rival Tadej Pogacar, the reigning Tour de France champion.

The 30-year-old, who now has eight Monument wins, the same as Pogacar, has been involved in several incidents involving spectators in recent years.

In December 2023, he spat at some spectators during a cyclocross race in the Netherlands, saying he had had enough of being booed and having liquid thrown at him.

The following April, he had beer thrown at him during the Tour of Flanders, while in March of this year he was spat at during the E3 Saxo Classic in Belgium.

"Something should be done about it," he added on Sunday. "People spitting and throwing things, it's too much and I'm going to ask for action to be taken."

Paris-Roubaix's route runs through the north of France and is estimated to draw about 500,000 spectators to watch on the side of the road.

This year's edition was 259.2km (161 miles) long, with about one fifth of it taking place on cobbled roads and tracks.