Russian team bikes stolen.

ademort

It,s been reported that the entire consignment of Russian team bikes has been nicked from there team wagon overnight.

FocusZing

"The Russian team have had all of their bikes stolen at the cycling world championships, team leader Alexandr Kolobnev said on Saturday.

"Police at work... Stolen ALL the bikes last night. No start tomorrow," Kolobnev, a silver medallist at the world championships road race in 2007 and 2009, wrote on his Twitter feed.

A similar incident happened in February when the Garmin-Sharp team had all their bikes stolen during the Tour Mediterranéen in France.

The men's elite road race will be held on Sunday over 272.3 kilometres from Lucca to Florence.
Reuters"

http://au.eurosport.com/cycling/russian-bikes-stolen-ahead-of-world-championships-race_sto3941665/story.shtml

ademort

FocusZing wrote:

"The Russian team have had all of their bikes stolen at the cycling world championships, team leader Alexandr Kolobnev said on Saturday.

"Police at work... Stolen ALL the bikes last night. No start tomorrow," Kolobnev, a silver medallist at the world championships road race in 2007 and 2009, wrote on his Twitter feed.

A similar incident happened in February when the Garmin-Sharp team had all their bikes stolen during the Tour Mediterranéen in France.

The men's elite road race will be held on Sunday over 272.3 kilometres from Lucca to Florence.
Reuters"

http://au.eurosport.com/cycling/russian-bikes-stolen-ahead-of-world-championships-race_sto3941665/story.shtml

The theft of team bikes is on the increase. Its happened maybe 4 or 5 times this season alone. You never hear or read of anybody being caught or charged with the theft either, which is very worrying. Think its time some of the teams reviewed their security before events as it appears that the persons responsible are very well organised.

jezzpalmer

I had to wait 10 months for my SLX Team, so looks like Katusha might miss next year's tour unless Canyon get their finger out!

RichN95.

I reckon Kolobnev has probably sold them to Vinokourov

RideOnTime

Terrible News. I might have to hit the Vodka.

t4tomo

Chance of great publicity for a bike shop to lend them some, then sell them on as "as ridden in the worlds"

tailwindhome

FocusZing wrote:

"Police at work... Stolen ALL the bikes last night. No start tomorrow,"

What, there are no bikes in Italy?

above_the_cows

It was Pat. He's got to fund his retirement somehow.

andyp

Katusha's Service Course is in Brescia, two hours from Florence, so they'll have bikes available later today. I imagine Kolobnev will ride tomorrow and, if past history is anything to go by, will get a decent result.

Paul 8v

Above The Cows wrote:

It was Pat. He's got to fund his retirement somehow.

Inspired by the vote in the former Machiavelli residence he decided on a Machiavellian plot of his own...

But yes, SURELY somewhere in Italy has bikes these guys can use tomorrow?

Dorset_Boy

I can fully understand why someone would want the Katusha bikes - very nice those Canyons.

But as said above, teams need to review their security.

ademort

Apparently a number of the riders have already recieved and tested new bikes . kolobnev , Sergey Chernetskiy and Yuri Trofimov have all tried and tested new bikes and will ride tomorrow.

Paul 8v

ademort wrote:

Apparently a number of the riders have already recieved and tested new bikes . kolobnev , Sergey Chernetskiy and Yuri Trofimov have all tried and tested new bikes and will ride tomorrow.

That's good, would have been a massive shame for them to miss the race because of some tea leaf