Man Under Investigation for Throwing Water Bottle at Cyclists’ Head

A Belgian man has turned himself in to police and apologized for throwing a nearly full water bottle at a Dutch cyclist’s head during a race on Sunday.

The cyclist, Mathieu van der Poel, was okay and later won the Paris-Roubaix race for a third-straight year, but said getting hit by the bottle felt like getting hit with a “stone” and called for “legal action” to be taken.

“It’s not normal,” van der Poel, 30, told reporters after the race, according to ESPN. “It was a full bottle. … It was like a stone hitting my face. This is really something we have to take legal action against.”

Lille public prosecutor Carole Etienne wrote on X Monday that her office opened an investigation into the incident and was considering a charge of violence with a weapon.

Later in the day, the 28-year-old Belgian man turned himself into local police, according to the BBC, and penned an apology letter published by the Flemish newspaper Het Nieuwsblad, writing that the incident happened after he had “drunk a lot.”

“I am so happy that he crossed the finish line first on Sunday, despite my stupid action,” the man wrote, according to a translation. “A water bottle was in the grass. I picked it up and threw it when he passed. Without thinking. Half a second later, I realized how stupid and dangerous it was.”

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Van der Poel’s Alpecin-Deceuninck Cycling Team told CNN in a statement that Sunday’s water bottle incident represents an “escalation of earlier incidents.” The BBC reports that van der Poel has been on the receiving end of numerous aggressive incidents involving fans in recent years, including being spat on and having beer thrown on him during races.

The outlet reports that van der Poel was spat on by a spectator during a race last month in Ronse, Belgium. The BBC reported that local police announced this week that culprit was identified and forced to pay a €350 fine, or about $398.

Van der Poel is currently ranked third in the individual world cyclist rankings, according to the International Cycling Union.