Mathieu van der Poel puts ‘stupid’ Evenepoel haters in their place

Mathieu van der Poel and Remco Evenepoel are faced with a lot of rubbish, but they try to ignore it as little as possible.

Cycling heroes can count on a lot of fame and interest and that is not always easy to deal with. When everything goes well and they win major races, they are applauded, but when things don’t go so well, they receive a lot of criticism.

With the rise of social media, this mess has only become worse. Remco Evenepoel and Mathieu van der Poel, for example, are constantly confronted with mean comments and they even end up in their private inbox. They don’t pay much attention to it.

Discussion impossible

“I stay far away from responding to people who post comments about me,” Mathieu van der Poel says in the magazine.Titans‘. “Because then you end up in an endless street.”

According to the world champion, it is simply impossible to win an argument on social media. “One of my favorite quotes is ‘Winning an argument with someone who is smart is difficult, but winning an argument with someone who is stupid is impossible.’

Evenepoel

Van der Poel occasionally trains with Remco Evenepoel on the Spanish coast (they both have a house there) and then the subject sometimes comes up. After all, Evenepoel has to deal with a lot more rubbish than Van der Poel.

“Nowadays he is often in the eye of the storm on social media. For example, they say that he often has an excuse when he does not win. The same people who complain about this then shamelessly praise him to the heavens when he sets a top race. wins.”

Fortunately, the two phenomena can give a place to those toxic reactions. “You have to have a strong head to deal with that. Remco has that. And so do I,” said Mathieu van der Poel.