Thomas De Gendt’s polka-dot Ridley Tour de France bike has been stolen from the Eurobike show in Friedrichshafen, Germany.
The one-off Helium SL bike was painted in white with red polka-dots and was used by Lotto-Soudal’s De Gendt during the 2016 Tour de France when he led the mountains classification.
Ridley reports that the bike was stolen from its stand on Tuesday morning, despite being securely locked up.
A spokesperson from Ridley told Cycling Weekly: “We locked up the bike Monday night with several locks on our booth. Our people came in at 9am on Tuesday and it was gone. It was still spotted at about 8.40 at our booth, so it happened in minutes.”
>>> Ridley announces more affordable aluminium version of the Helium
Given the bike’s unique paintwork, it will be a hard machine to re-sell on the open market. The frameset alone retails for just under £2500.
Belgian De Gendt held the King of the Mountains lead on stages 5–7 and 12–14 of the Tour, before Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) took the lead in the classification and eventually took the jersey in Paris.
The bike has Campagnolo Bora wheels and a Campagnolo Super Record EPS groupset. It was still equipped with De Gendt’s Tour race number – 163.
De Gendt is currently racing in the Vuelta a España where he held the mountain classification lead on stage nine.
Eurobike in the largest international bike show in Europe, and runs from August 31 to September 4.
