Less than two weeks after their bikes were stolen at the Tour de France, Cofidis have fallen victim to another theft, this time at the Baloise Ladies Tour.
The French team’s women’s squad had several bikes stolen at the race in the Netherlands, it was revealed on Wednesday.
Although Cofidis are yet to issue an official statement, team manager Arthur Quilliec said that Cofidis riders’ bikes had been stolen “again”.
“The police are still actively investigating,” Quilliec said, as reported in Dutch outlet NU. “I can confirm that we’ve had thieves come through and that several of our Look bikes have been stolen.”
The team manager was not willing to say how many bikes were missing, “in the interest of the investigation”.
The incident happened before the start of the Baloise Ladies Tour, which began in the Dutch village of Yerseke on Wednesday evening.
Cofidis were nonetheless able to line up for the opening stage, a prologue against the clock, which required them to use their time trial bikes. Great Britain’s Zoe Bäckstedt (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) won on the 3.1km course, and went into the race lead.
“We are working on a solution for tomorrow’s [Friday's] road stage,” Quilliec said. “The theft of these expensive bikes is becoming a real scourge. We have done everything we can to prevent this from happening.”
Eleven days ago, on the night of the 5-6 July, Cofidis’s men’s team had 11 team-issue Look bikes stolen from their equipment truck following stage one of the Tour de France in Lille.
Each of the bikes stolen was valued at around €13,000 (£11,200), but all have since been recovered; five were found abandoned in the area around the team’s hotel, while the remaining bikes were discovered in the town of Halluin, near the Belgian border.
Commenting on the return of the men’s team’s bikes, Cofidis manager Cédric Vasseur said: “I’d like to warmly congratulate the Tour de France organisers and the police who did everything possible to find them. A huge amount of investigative work has been carried out, which will enable us to continue the Tour de France with peace of mind.”
Cycling Weekly has contacted Cofidis regarding the bikes stolen at the Baloise Ladies Tour.
The six-stage race continues on Thursday with a 127.2km parcours to Knokke-Heist in Belgium.
