2022 PRO Thread

[TobinHatesYou]

Their parents where in the room next to them, just letting your kids run around a hotel, making a lot of noise disturbing guests says enough about the parents.
His girlfriend had already asked them to stop, so they already had their warning. Sure Mvdp overreacted but bother parties are to blame here.

You have no idea how loud the kids were being in the corridor. They may have been knocking on the door like room service would instead of banging on the door. Presumably MvdP's girlfriend attempted to communicate with the girls through the door from inside their hotel room and never interacted with the parents. Based on the report, the first face-to-face confrontation was after MvdP surprised them and chased them back to their room.

Stop trying to blame the parents for what led to MvdP's violent outburst.

[robbosmans]

I am not saying MvdP wasn’t at fault but I won’t stop blaming the parents partially. This is from a Dutch newssource that interviewed the girls and parents:

“The Algemeen Dagblad spoke to one of the girls involved. She says that they did not know that a cyclist was sleeping opposite their room. Their parents were in a separate room. They would have thought they were watching a horror movie, so they didn't intervene despite the noise. According to the parents, the youngest girl often plays 'knock and run' in hotels. And from a video that AD was shown, it appears that Van der Poel's door was knocked several times. There is also a video of the fight afterwards, with the parents of the girls present.”

[liam7020]

I’m sure you didn’t do anything stupid when you were 13 … or 33. Trying to blame this on wokeness sure is something, especially when the kids ended up being the ones physically harmed. If being woke means not excusing a 184cm man committing violence against teenage girls, then I’m woke af.

What would you think if someone charged your daughter and shoved her into a wall after she was cowering in fear?

I'm well over 50 now and still doing stupid things - like replying to idiots like you on the internet! Taking a wild guess but I'm assuming you don't have children? Physically harmed? If having a slight carpet burn is the worst they ever have in this life they'll be doing pretty ok. Kids brought up to have some respect for themselves and others wouldn't be running amok in a public space. I'm assuming they didn't just target VdP so what if the target of their annoyance had been a 90yo with poor health instead of a 27yo athlete?

[liam7020]

I am not saying MvdP wasn’t at fault but I won’t stop blaming the parents partially. This is from a Dutch newssource that interviewed the girls and parents:

“The Algemeen Dagblad spoke to one of the girls involved. She says that they did not know that a cyclist was sleeping opposite their room. Their parents were in a separate room. They would have thought they were watching a horror movie, so they didn't intervene despite the noise. According to the parents, the youngest girl often plays 'knock and run' in hotels. And from a video that AD was shown, it appears that Van der Poel's door was knocked several times. There is also a video of the fight afterwards, with the parents of the girls present.”

Thanks for that update, pretty much what I'm alluding to. Who the hell leaves their teenage daugthers unattended in a separate room in a strange hotel? It completely beggars belief - considering how many two legged creepy crawlies are wandering about the face of this planet I'd say they had a lucky escape. VdP should have kept his head but the Australian authorities should have at least raised the question of potential child neglect. Fe#kin' unbelieveable.

[Karvalo]

Not a VdP fan by any means and it looks like he over-reacted a tad. But for me, this is just indicative of the whole "woke" thing in society where it seems acceptable to let your children run riot in a public space with no thought to the effects on others in the community.

1) 'The youth of today' is something people have been moaning about in writing ever since writing was a thing and they have never stopped moaning about it since. Like, literally 2,500 years ago the kids already had no respect. Do you really think they've continued to get worse year on year ever since?

2) There is no definition of 'woke' that could possibly be relevant in this situation unless you're simply using it as a synonym for 'bad'. What you're actually describing is behaviour that is the exact opposite of woke principles.

[jever98]

I am not saying MvdP wasn’t at fault but I won’t stop blaming the parents partially. This is from a Dutch newssource that interviewed the girls and parents:

“The Algemeen Dagblad spoke to one of the girls involved. She says that they did not know that a cyclist was sleeping opposite their room. Their parents were in a separate room. They would have thought they were watching a horror movie, so they didn't intervene despite the noise. According to the parents, the youngest girl often plays 'knock and run' in hotels. And from a video that AD was shown, it appears that Van der Poel's door was knocked several times. There is also a video of the fight afterwards, with the parents of the girls present.”

Thanks for that update, pretty much what I'm alluding to. Who the hell leaves their teenage daugthers unattended in a separate room in a strange hotel? It completely beggars belief - considering how many two legged creepy crawlies are wandering about the face of this planet I'd say they had a lucky escape. VdP should have kept his head but the Australian authorities should have at least raised the question of potential child neglect. Fe#kin' unbelieveable.

Come on. They are not toddlers. At 13 and 14 they should be able to stay in their own hotel room.

MVDP messed up, that's clear. The kids and parents also messed up. A reprimand for harassment would have seemed appropriate in parallel with the punishment that MVDP received.

[TobinHatesYou]

MvdP shoved a girl who was cowering in a corner against a wall hard enough that she got rug burn. He then turned and chased a girl who attempted to flee, also shoving her and causing her to fall to the floor. That’s a clear case of physical harm, Liam. You wouldn’t do that to your own child, and certainly wouldn’t let another grown man.

If any of you think confrontation occurred prior, then you also believe he had time to consider those violent acts instead of them being more in the heat of the moment. He likely had no idea the perpetrators were teen girls, believing it to be someone trying to sabotage his race. He wasn’t able to turn off that fight response quickly enough and this was the result. Continuing to shift blame away from MvdP toward the parents makes no damn sense.

[tymon_tm]

an incident had happened, both parties surely got to learn a harsh lesson, and luckily no one got really hurt. do you really need to speculate ad naseum about every aspect of an otherwise domestic disturbance case, or maybe we can move the hell on?

[Andrew69]

Heard on local news here in Wollongong this morning that MvdP is appealling the conviction.
Im assuming its due to the possible issues he may have with travel as someone already pointed out.

Considering he pleaded guilty to the charges, it may be a little hard to have the conviction overturned, but I guess what he is asking for (which is pretty common here) is to have the conviction not recorded even though the charge against him has been proven.

There is no doubt he over-reacted...although I can easily see why he reacted the way he did.
And as far as those people asking where the parents were....please dont make me laugh!
Far too many parents here in Australia believe their child is the next coming of Christ and can do no wrong, even when they are the Devil re-incarnated

[spokenwords]

wonder if the parents will sue.

[TobinHatesYou]

wonder if the parents will sue.

They would surely settle out of court for not a whole lot of money. Ultimately the physical injuries were superficial and you can only claim so much monetary compensation for mental/emotional trauma / loss of enjoyment of life. At least that’s what would likely happen in an already litigious country like the US.

[spokenwords]

yea, dont know the system too well outside of the States but if the wrong lawyer realizes who is involved they will make up some reasons. I really hope not!

[Konsi]

I am not saying MvdP wasn’t at fault but I won’t stop blaming the parents partially. This is from a Dutch newssource that interviewed the girls and parents:

“The Algemeen Dagblad spoke to one of the girls involved. She says that they did not know that a cyclist was sleeping opposite their room. Their parents were in a separate room. They would have thought they were watching a horror movie, so they didn't intervene despite the noise. According to the parents, the youngest girl often plays 'knock and run' in hotels. And from a video that AD was shown, it appears that Van der Poel's door was knocked several times. There is also a video of the fight afterwards, with the parents of the girls present.”

Thanks for that update, pretty much what I'm alluding to. Who the hell leaves their teenage daugthers unattended in a separate room in a strange hotel? It completely beggars belief - considering how many two legged creepy crawlies are wandering about the face of this planet I'd say they had a lucky escape. VdP should have kept his head but the Australian authorities should have at least raised the question of potential child neglect. Fe#kin' unbelieveable.

Child neglect? For letting a 13 year and a 14 year old have their own hotel room in a four star hotel? I'd rather be worried if they didn't let them sleep in a separate room.

As said above, if woke means to not excuse a grown man losing his temper, and getting physically against teenagers half his age (and waiting for them, not a split-second decision), then I am definitely woke. He could have called the reception, his team staff, or even the police. He didn't, and I think he got off lightly with the fine.

[MichaelB]

Their parents where in the room next to them, just letting your kids run around a hotel, making a lot of noise disturbing guests says enough about the parents.
His girlfriend had already asked them to stop, so they already had their warning. Sure Mvdp overreacted but bother parties are to blame here.

I'm with you.

MvdP reaction can't be condoned, but neither can the actions of the kids.

People need to take responsibility for their actions.

[TobinHatesYou]

I'm with you.

MvdP reaction can't be condoned, but neither can the actions of the kids.

People need to take responsibility for their actions.

Let’s stop pretending any of us haven’t gotten away with way worse at 13-14 years-old. If pranking people by knocking on hotel room doors is the worst thing these kids ever do, they’d be pretty exemplary human beings by any standard.

MvdP should have gone through the proper channels, and then the parents could have dealt with the children themselves.