SD Worx has shared a call to action on social media to raise awareness for what the team has described as a ‘brutal’ burglary which has seen multiple bikes stolen, in the latest in a long line of high-profile pro cycling bike thefts.
The team shared images of bikes including a Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL7, S-Works Shiv time trial bike and an S-Works Roubaix, and in each case have suggested that multiple bikes have been stolen – which could amount to a sizeable portion of the women’s WorldTour team’s bike fleet.
The message on Twitter read, “Team SD Worx is the victim of a brutal burglary.
“Please be on the lookout for our TT-bikes, road-bikes and Roubaix-bikes, which has been stolen.”
“Please share this message! Thx a lot for your help!”
Cyclingnews requested more detail of the number of bikes stolen and the location of the theft. However, the team are not able to share further information while a police investigation is ongoing.
The team, which finished atop the UCI’s WorldTour ranking in 2022, departed on Tuesday for an off-season training camp in San Francisco, California. They have been unable to confirm the country in which the bikes were stolen, though.
Burglaries and bike thefts of this scale are not uncommon for international cycling teams, with the Italian national track team last year suffering a robbery of a team van in a secure car park in Lille containing 22 bikes, worth an estimated €600,000.
Those bikes were recovered in a subsequent anti-drug raid, and returned to the Italian team.
In 2021 Team BikeExchange also suffered the theft of team bikes at the Tour de l’Ardèche, resulting in rival teams offering the affected riders their spare bikes in order to finish the race.
At the start of 2022, Israel Cycling Academy – the development team for Israel Premier-Tech – saw 22 bikes stolen from the team’s equipment truck during a training camp in Spain.
As the bikes may be listed for sale quickly after the robbery, it will assist in the investigation if images of the bikes are widely shared. “The police did ask us to release photos of the stolen bikes,” an SD Worx spokesperson told Cyclingnews.
“Once someone sees them being offered, the alarm could then be raised. In the past, they have already been able to solve bicycle thefts that way.”
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…