Thieves broke in to locked Team Type 1 – sanofi-aventis vehicles overnight on Friday in a parking lot outside the race hotel, stealing more than 500,000 euros worth of bicycles, tools, spare parts and equipment, forcing the team to abandon the start at Stage 5 of the Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali in Italy.
Team mechanics came out on Saturday morning and found the front window of a team car smashed and the vehicle pushed back from the back door of the locked panel van used to store equipment. The locks on the side and back doors of the panel van were forced open and all bicycles, tools, wheels, spare parts and equipment was stolen.
The large luggage door underneath the team bus was pried off and removed from the vehicle and all bikes mounted in the storage bin under the bus were stolen.
Police were called and arrived around 8:30 am, and began an investigation.
“This is a sad and terrible situation. We are devastated by the loss of so much equipment and the invaluable sizing and measurement information for our time trial and race bikes. It’s only a matter of time before these bikes resurface for sale somewhere, and we simply ask our friends and supporters to help us find the bikes and help the police catch the thieves,” said Director Sportif Vassili Davidenko.
Unfortunately bike theft isn’t that rare of an occurrence at major stage races. Bike thieves follow the races and know how much team bikes are worth. It is not uncommon for the team mechanics to sometimes sleep in the bus with the bikes and most have a story of coming across some suspicious people casing the team vehicles. Lance Armstrong had his time trial bike stolen from the team hotel during the 2009 Amgen Tour of California in Sacramento. Luckily for the seven time Tour de France champion the bike was recovered.
The previous day Team Type 1 – sanofi-aventis placed two riders in the top-10 in stage 4′s time trial showing strong form in a short race against the clock on a flat course.
The Swiss National Time Trial Champion Rubens Bertogliati posted the fastest time of the day for Team Type 1 finishing just 17 seconds behind the stage winner Adriano Malori (Lanpre-ISD) placing him in fifth place on the stage. Teammate Rubens Bertogliati was eighth in the race against the clock. The squad’s highest place rider on the general classification was Laszio Bodrogi sitting in 13th place.
RT @CarolinaCycling: The @teamtype1 bikes stolen overnight at Coppi e Bartali & squad forced to abandon http://bit.ly/gfcpnS
RT @CarolinaCycling: The @teamtype1 bikes stolen overnight at Coppi e Bartali & squad forced to abandon http://bit.ly/gfcpnS