Home > News

There’s now a Strava segment where Mathieu van der Poel pooped at the road worlds

What better way to memorialize the second most famous No. 2 in cycling

06-08-2023 World Championships Elite; 2023, Alpecin - Deceuninck; Van Der Poel, Mathieu; Glasgow; Photo by: Sirotti
August 9, 2023
Share on SMS

What would we do without the Internet? There’s so much to love: puppy photos, hilarious memes, annoying influencers, a gif for everything, and absurd Strava segments.

Mathieu van der Poel had an urgent bathroom break in the 2023 UCI road worlds when the race was halted for 40 minutes due to a protest. Thankfully, a local Scottish couple opened their home for the Dutchman to borrow their loo. Koos Moerenhout, Van der Poel’s coach, escorted the Dutch rider to Davie and Shona Findlay’s place to ask if some of his riders could us their facilities.

Mathieu van der Poel needed a mid-race No. 2 to be No. 1 at the worlds

The warm hospitality of Scottish locals

“He was such a nice guy and extremely polite and he was so grateful,” Davie said to The Scottish Record. “The next thing we knew there was another rider and then another and I think we had four of the guys from the Netherlands inside. I think they were just taking advantage of the lull in the race and enjoying the rest while they got focused for the restart.”

A photo of Mathieu van der Poel’s broken shoe makes his victory even more spectacular

After the race the new world champion even took the time to thank them for their hospitality.

“So 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,” he said after the race. “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.”

There’s always that one person on Strava

Well, because Strava users are ridiculous, there is of course a segment to commemorate the Dutchman’s deuce. “Van der Poel sh@t here August 2023,” is the elegant name of the 1.57 km segment.
Currently, Kristian Sbaragli, an Italian pro who also rides for van der Poel’s Alpecin-Deceuninck squad, holds the KOM, averaging 51.4 km/h, in a time of 1:50. He averaged 326 W, so it’s not too shitty, er shabby, of a segment.

Mathieu van der Poel's poop Strava segment

Memories of another Dutchman, Tom Dumoulin

Although much has been made about the multiple world champion’s nature break, this isn’t the first time (and probably not the last) that a rider has had to relieve himself in that way. In the 2017 Giro d’Italia, while wearing the pink jersey, Tom Dumoulin was having stomach problems, which ultimately resulted in the toilet stop heard (and seen) around the world.