Mathieu van der Poel received a lot of criticism when he won the third stage at Tirreno-Adriatico in March. And all this thanks to Fabio Quartararo.
The Dutch cycling champion then celebrated his victory by batting his arms out proudly as he crossed the finish line. “I saw this celebration at MotoGP on Instagram and my colleagues liked it. Van der Poel said afterwards.”
The Alpecin-Fenix racer is a fan of motorsports and took mustard to celebrate at Fabio Quartataro. The French motorcycle rider won the Andalusian Grand Prix at Jerez last July, celebrating his victory this way. He later stated that it was an imitation of his compatriot Kylian Mbappe, the football star of Paris Saint-Germain.
In an interview with Eurosport ahead of this season’s race in Jerez, Quartararo recalled that “inspiring” moment for Van der Poel. “Do I know him? Yes,” the French laughed. “I think when I was in Qatar, to test or race, he would have won a stage. Then he posted something like thanks for the inspiration. You know, I’ve been to some races but it’s not like I’m ready to inspire other athletes. So it was a very good feeling. I see Also now that more and more kids are referring to me, which is really cool. I was like that when I was little, so I get a huge amount of positive energy from these people (like Van der Poel, editor).”
