Dutch cyclist Mathieu van der Poel has thanked a Scottish couple for letting him use their toilet mid-race as he won the UCI World Road Race title.

Van der Poel was caught short after protesters disrupted the race for around an hour by gluing themselves to the road and he went and knocked on the door of Davie and Shona Findlay to ask if he could use their toilet.

The couple let him in and the 28-year-old went on to win the race, finishing almost two minutes ahead of Wout van Aert in second place. And Van der Poel sent a "big massive message" to the Findlays after his victory, admitting he "couldn't have carried on racing without their help".

Speaking to Dutch TV, he said: " It's unbelievable, I'm now the first Dutch world champion in 38 years. It was a crazy day. But I have to go back to the middle of the race for the most important part.

"I had to do a big massive message. 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.

"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." Davie said the couple were "thrilled that we could help him any way" and revealed several other cyclists also used their bathroom.

"All we did was offer a bit of hospitality, which we would always do," Davie told the Daily Record. "Any of the neighbours would have done the same thing. We did feel that it was a bit of an emergency because the team manager came first and asked if we could let one rider use the facilities, who I now take to be Mathieu van der Poel.

Van der Poel thanked a Scottish couple after his victory for letting him use their bathroom mid-race
Van der Poel thanked a Scottish couple after his victory for letting him use their bathroom mid-race

"He was such a nice guy and extremely polite and he was so grateful. The next thing we knew there was another rider and then another and I think we had four of the guys from the Netherlands in.

"I think they were just taking advantage of the lull in the race and enjoying the rest while they got focused for the restart. I heard that Mathieu had a very nice message for us so if we're able to respond to that, I'd like to tell him that he’s very welcome and I'm thrilled that we could help him any way.

"It's all a bit surreal to be honest, as we’re aware of what a massive race it was and the incident with the protesters made our home a real focal point in world news for an hour or so."