Riding a race is tough at the best of times but it was made even harder for Danish Continental Team, Team Giant-Castelli, when thieves made off with their time trial bikes overnight.
According to a report from Danish website, Feltet.dk, the UCI Continental team had been taking part in the multi-stage race PostNord Danmark Rundt when thieves broke into their van after the third stage and stole 10 of the team’s time trial bikes.
The crime isn’t the first time a professional team’s bikes have been stolen with Bahrain-Merida having the same problem earlier this year at the Hammer Series.
Fully equipped with 3T and Zipp disc wheels, the Giant Trinity Advanced SL bikes weren’t the only things to be taken with helmets also being pocketed by the thieves.
Team manager Brian Vinjebo asked for people to stay on the look out. “We ask everyone to help find the bikes and equipment and they should be welcome to contact us if they have seen or heard something or are offered a bike,” he said.
A Facebook post by team described the horror when they woke up. “It’s a nightmare to wake up to” it said, especially after the team had made every effort to ward off thieves. Unfortunately though it wasn’t enough. “This time the thieves were smarter” the statement said.
To further compound the team’s bad luck, the unfortunate timing of the theft occurred as the race was set to take on the individual time trial. Covering 17.8km, the riders were set to race around the city of Randers on their specifically designed time trial bikes before the incident.
However, in a show of good faith Team Sunweb, Trek-Segafredo and ColoQuick-CULT have all offered up bikes to their stricken rivals allowing the team to compete and carry on the race.
“Many teams live in the same hotel and immediately we have seen a lot of helpfulness” the team said.
Despite the set back the team will carry on racing with the race finishing on Saturday 16 as the riders face 198km from Ebeltoft to Aarhus.
