Jeremy Vine accused of jumping red light as he films bin lorry driver …
As someone who loves cycling, I suppose it’s heartening to know that, with all that’s going on in the world at the moment, the Daily Record decided to focus this morning’s front page on Mathieu van der Poel’s emergency visit – in the middle of the protest that temporarily halted Sunday’s elite men’s road race[1] – to a local Scottish couple’s house to, ahem, use their facilities…
Now that’s what I call a front-page splash (or should that be dump?).
And come on, the Daily Record, ‘Mathieu van der Poo-el’ was stirring you right in the face and you went with that headline?
Anyway… Proud Scottish hosts Davie and Shona Findlay told the newspaper[2] that they were “thrilled” to play such an integral role in Van der Poel’s maiden world road race title, and the first Dutch rainbow jersey in almost 40 years.
> “A few corners too many”: Riders react to claims that Glasgow city circuit was a “death race” and “designed in a pub” after Mathieu van der Poel wins epic battle[3]
“All we did was offer a bit of hospitality, which we would always do. Any of the neighbours would have done the same thing,” says Davie, who lives near the site of Sunday’s environmental protest, which halted the race for almost an hour in the Carron Valley.
“We did feel that it was a bit of an emergency because the team manager came first and asked if we could let one rider use the facilities, who I now take to be Mathieu van der Poel.
“He was such a nice guy and extremely polite and he was so grateful. The next thing we knew there was another rider and then another and I think we had four of the guys from the Netherlands in.
“I think they were just taking advantage of the lull in the race and enjoying the rest while they got focused for the restart.”
Delightful. Although, to be fair, given Tom Dumoulin’s exploits in the past, we should all just be glad that Dutch riders have now taken to using the toilet…
(Pauline Ballet/SWpix.com)
Van der Poel even showed how grateful he was by giving a shout out on Dutch TV to the Findlays.
“I had to do a big massive message,” he said. “I had to knock on the door of a couple’s house along the course. I really owe them and I would like to thank them so much. I couldn’t have carried on racing without their help.
“It was the biggest race of my life and it was so kind of these people to let me in their house and let me sit on their toilet.”
After hearing the world champion’s message, Davie said: “I heard that Mathieu had a very nice message for us so if we’re able to respond to that, I’d like to tell him that he’s very welcome and I’m thrilled that we could help him any way. It’s all a bit surreal to be honest, as we’re aware of what a massive race it was and the incident with the protestors made our home a real focal point in world news for an hour or so.”
(Alex Broadway/SWpix.com)
I hear the Findlays’ toilet seat and a tin of Febreze will be appearing next to the infamous BOA dial at the Netherlands’ cycling museum before Christmas…