{"id":582668,"date":"2026-04-03T10:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T10:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/582668\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T10:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T10:24:11","slug":"a-night-in-jail-is-the-best-thing-that-could-have-happened-to-mathieu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/582668\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cA night in jail is the best thing that could have happened to Mathieu\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a truly remarkable moment during the 2022 World Championships: Mathieu van der Poel<\/a> in a cell the night before his bid for the rainbow jersey. The Dutchman ultimately fell short, but that very World Championships may have been a turning point in his career, his brother David explains in an interview with the AD<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During the 2022 World Championships in Australia, some remarkable reports about Mathieu van der Poel emerged. The Dutchman had chased two rowdy girls out of the hallway. As a result, the rider had to spend a night in a cell just before his bid for the world championship.<\/p>\n

A day later, the turmoil proved fatal to the Dutchman\u2019s performance. He rode only one lap and then had to withdraw. A major disappointment, as that world championship was one of his biggest goals. Yet his brother David van der Poel now sees the positive aspects of the incident.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"mathieuDavid van der Poel: \u201cIn hindsight, that time in jail in Australia was the best thing that ever happened to him\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019ve never seen Mathieu so sad and uncertain. He was really down. That\u2019s when it hit him: from now on, I\u2019m going to give it my all,\u2019 he says. \u2018He started training even harder and didn\u2019t let any opportunity slip by. That jail cell in Australia was the best thing that could have happened to him. In hindsight,\u2019 concludes the 33-year-old brother.<\/p>\n

A year later, Mathieu van der Poel returned to the World Championships and managed to win. However, he had been winning his entire career. Everything went his way. \u201cUntil he was 20, he could rely heavily on his talent. He even won races when he rode tactically foolishly, because he was so much better than the rest,\u201d says David.<\/p>\n

\"van-der-poel-van-aert\"\/David van der Poel: \u201cWout van Aert has always pushed him to the limit\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the ease with which he won also created a false impression. \u201cHe got the reputation that he was just messing around. The image of a prankster who supposedly didn\u2019t listen to his coach and just did whatever he wanted.\u201d According to his brother, that\u2019s completely unfair.<\/p>\n

\u2018I think there are very few riders who do as much for their sport as Mathieu. He was like that back in the day, too. But in recent years, he\u2019s gained an enormous amount of motivation.\u2019 Several factors have been important for that motivation, including that infamous World Championship in Australia.<\/p>\n

But his competitors have also fueled a greater drive to win. \u201cWout van Aert has always pushed him to the limit, and now he\u2019s locked in another sporting battle with Tadej Pogacar.\u201d That battle may well take place again this Sunday at the Tour of Flanders. David van der Poel will be watching his little brother from the sidelines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a truly remarkable moment during the 2022 World Championships: Mathieu van der Poel in a cell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,16656,77973,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-582668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-cycling-world-championships","12":"tag-mathieu-van-der-poel","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}