Police recover stolen £9,000 Vuelta a España bike, being sold for £90

Police return stolen Scott Foil to Orica-GreenEdge team after spotting it on sale in a shop in Malaga for just €120
Stuart Clarke

If you saw a top-of-the-range Scott Foil for sale in a shop for just £90 the chances are you’d be a bit suspicious as to how it came to be there.

Detectives in the Spanish city of Malaga had just such concerns when they saw the bike, which was actually worth nearly £9,000, with a €120 price tag in a shop window.

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It turned out the detectives’ instincts  were spot on, with the bike matching the description of one stolen from the Orica-GreenEdge team at the finish of stage three of the Vuelta a España in the Andalucian city.

The shop owner, who has a long criminal record, reportedly bought the bike off the thief and tried to flog it at a knock-down price. The bike was returned to the Orica team before Sunday’s final stage, with police posting a picture on Twitter of the handover.

“We’re awarding the striped jersey to the person who stole the Orica-GreenEdge bike – his stage finish is in jail,” the tweet read.