British team has £70,000 worth of bikes stolen during Tour of Britain – MASHAHER

A British team competing at this week’s Tour of Britain Women faced a frantic scramble to make the start of Stage 2 in Wrexham on Friday morning after having their entire fleet of bikes stolen from a mechanic’s van overnight.

The theft of 14 Ribble Endurance SLR bikes occurred at the Macdonald Hill Valley Hotel, in Whitchurch, Shropshire. The bikes retail for around £5,000 each but may well be worth more with upgraded components.

The incident is the latest in a long line of raids on team vehicles at professional bike races, with the Tour of Britain Women having experienced similar thefts in the past.

Two years ago, American team Trek-Segafredo had £50,000 worth of “bikes, wheels and other items” stolen from a car park on Phoenix Way, Swansea.

Lifeplus-Wahoo revealed the robbery at 8.10am on Friday morning, writing on X, formerly Twitter: “We are hoping to find a solution to enable us to start in Wrexham today”.

The team received a response from British Cycling’s chief executive Jon Dutton, saying the governing body would “do everything it could” to help.

At 10.39am the team posted a further message on social media, announcing: “Wrexham we are here. All of our thanks and appreciation goes out to the many teams that offered and gave their spare team bikes and their mechanics time to get our girls on the road. We wouldn’t be starting without them!”

Lifeplus-Wahoo had already had a difficult week after one of their riders, Kate Richardson, was ruled out of the race after being hit by a driver who allegedly tried to overtake at “high speed” on a blind bend on a narrow country lane – and who then allegedly turned around to abuse the stricken cyclist.

Richardson, who won last month’s Rapha Lincoln Grand Prix, was training near Holmfirth in Yorkshire on Monday morning when she was hit by the motorist and suffered a refractured scapula, road rash, and an “incredibly bruised and swollen right hip”.

“Clearly the driver couldn’t wait ten more seconds to overtake me,” she said on Instagram. “He decided to try and squeeze his huge 4×4 past me at a high speed, hitting me hard and knocking me off my bike.

“Initially, he just drove on but turned around and came back later to verbally abuse and threaten me before getting back in his car and driving off again. Thankfully another driver came across the scene pretty quickly and kindly helped me up and drove me home.”

The theft of equipment at professional bike races has become a scourge. Last season, Euskaltel-Euskadi and Baloise Trek Lions were unable to race at the Tour of Slovenia and Baloise Belgium Tour respectively after overnight robberies.

Cornish team Saint Piran had £30,000 of bikes stolen from a team van at a race in the Netherlands last June. In 2021, 22 bikes were stolen from the Italian track cycling team during the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Roubaix, including Filippo Ganna’s gold-painted Pinarello.

Most recently, a group of thieves attempted to steal Bahrain-Victorious’ Merida bikes the night before Milan-Sanremo, only to be thwarted by the team’s bus driver and 2021 Paris-Roubaix winner Sonny Colbrelli.

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