Mathieu van der Poel lost a big-time beer bet with the u-23 world champ

Mathieu van der Poel may have won the road worlds, but he missed out not only on a second rainbow jersey, but also beer. Unfortunately, due to his crash on the first lap, he was unable to collect a beer from a teammate.
Axel Laurance, the winner of the u-23 men’s road race world championships,  and a member of the Alpecin–Deceuninck team, engaged in a friendly bet with the Dutch cyclist. According to the deal, Axel would owe Mathieu a beer if he managed to finish in the top-five in the MTB XC race.

Mathieu van der Poel crashes out of world champs on start loop

Apparently, the wager was originally misunderstood by those around them. After a report from Direct Velo said that it was MvdP who would buy Laurence a beer, the French rider took to twitter to clear things up.

“Correction: I would buy him a beer if he finished in the top-five in mountain biking. He thought that was very generous, but I intended to buy the cheapest beer,” he posted.

Rectification: c’est moi qui lui payerais une bière si il faisait top 5 en vtt
Il m’a dit que j’étais généreux mais j’avais l’intention d’acheter la moins chère ? https://t.co/iWRP5rC8YH

— Axel laurance (@laurance_axel) August 14, 2023

The two teammates had been chatting about the road course and tire selection, when the beer bet was born. His father, Franck had told him to call MvdP to find out what equipment he had used, as they had recently switched to tubeless in the team and we don’t have too many references for that yet. Somewhere in the conversation, the topic of beer came up. Unfortunately for the Dutchman, his race ended early. Hopefully, he has enjoyed a few brews to celebrate his road victory.