A bike worth €14,000 that was stolen from a Movistar rider at this weekend’s Spanish national championships has been recovered by police.
While the Spanish team had an exceptionally successful weekend, with road race wins for world champion Alejandro Valverde and Lourdes Oyarbide as well as a women’s time trial victory courtesy of Sheyla Gutiérrez, it wasn’t tears of joy for all Movistar riders.
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According to Spanish newspaper Diario AS, the opportunistic thief swiped the bike after it was left in a corridor outside the rider’s hotel room.
However, thanks to police in Murcia, who posted a picture of the suspected perpetrators on social media, the individuals responsible were identified and the bike was recovered.
The perpetrators who were subsequently identified by police (Murcia police)The police have described the collaboration from citizens as a “rapid performance” in salvaging the road bike, adding the rider had been left very scared after losing such a valuable item but was ultimately content the episode had resulted in a happy ending.
Alejandro Valverde pulled the Spanish road race champion’s jersey over his world champion bands after pipping Luis León Sánchez (Astana) to the line in a two-up sprint in his home city of Murcia, with Cofidis’ Jésus Herrada picking up bronze.
Valverde recently signed a contract extension with Movistar that will see the world champion racing for the team until he’s 41 years old, with a stipulation that he will remain working with the squad in some capacity until 2024.
Jonathan Castroviejo (Ineos) took the time trial, beating Astana’s Pello Bilbao by 49 seconds over the 39.4km course, with Gorka Izagirre (Astana) third.
Lourdes Oyarbide won the women’s road race ahead of Irene Mendez and Mireia Benito (Massi-Tactic) as Sheyla Gutiérrez beat team-mate Oyarbide by 53 seconds in the time trial, with another Movistar rider Gloria Rodríguez picking up bronze.
