Thieves have broken into the Specialized headquarters and stolen $160,000 worth of bikes, including a Peter Sagan Monument-winning machine.
The incident happened on Sunday, December 13 when suspects forced entry to the building, located in Morgan Hill, California, in broad daylight and stole a large collection of bikes.
Among the 16 bikes that were stolen, thieves escaped with Sagan’s 2018 S-Works Roubaix (which he used to win Paris-Roubaix that year), Fabian Cancellara’s yellow jersey S-Works Tarmac, and bikes owned by the company’s founder, Mike Synard.
The total value of the bikes stolen comes to around £117,000.
Specialized is offering a reward of $25,000 to anyone offering information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the these, or the return of all the stolen bikes.
Morgan Hill Police Department is also investigating the theft, which happened sometime before 4.36pm on Sunday, and has issued a public appeal.
Suspects are believed to have used two different vehicles during the burglary - CCTV captured a maroon-coloured Toyota 4Runner and a white box van.
The thieves placed bikes into the white van and then both vehicles fled the scene, while the Toyota was found abandoned later.
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A statement from police said: “Unknown suspects forced entry into the business during the daytime hours and stole multiple high value bicycles. The stolen bicycles were part of a large collection of one of a kind prototypes, race-winning and personally owned bikes Specialized had on display in their building. The total value of stolen property is estimated to be approximately $160,000.00.”
According to Cycling Tips in the US, thieves escaped with Sagan’s Paris-Roubaix-winning bike, his 2019 Tour de France bike, Cancellara’s yellow jersey machine from the 2010 Tour, a Shiv ridden by Tony Martin in the 2012 Olympics, two Stumpjumpers own by the company’s founder, and a full-suspension road prototype, among others.
Anything with information can contact Morgan Hill PD.
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