{"id":97290,"date":"2025-08-27T22:09:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T22:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/97290\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T22:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T22:09:10","slug":"we-are-dealing-with-organised-crime-lidl-trek-manager-urges-teams-to-find-a-solution-for-bike-raids-by-thieves-at-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/97290\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe are dealing with organised crime\u201d: Lidl-Trek manager urges teams to \u201cfind a solution\u201d for bike raids by thieves at races"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Visma-Lease a Bike contend with the overnight theft of 18 Cerv\u00e9lo bikes worth an estimated \u20ac250,000<\/a> near Turin, the fallout at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a has seen rival teams rally in support while simultaneously admitting they have few answers \u2014 with one team boss describing the escalating raids as \u201corganised crime,\u201d and another staff member warning that the idea of mechanics sleeping in trucks would be \u201cseriously risky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lidl-Trek\u2019s team boss Luca Guercilena told IDLProCycling.com<\/a> that his riders and staff immediately stepped in to help on Monday morning after discovering the Dutch squad\u2019s truck had been raided overnight.<\/p>\n

The 52-year-old Italian said: \u201cWe saw the massive damage the thieves had caused, so we immediately told Visma-Lease a Bike that whatever they needed, we were ready to help.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it was bikes, groupsets, helmets, or mechanics\u2026 anything necessary to be ready for Stage three. I also helped translate for the police and detectives to help speed up the process a bit. It\u2019s about mutual respect between teams. We know how difficult it is to wake up and find your truck completely emptied.\u201d<\/p>\n

>\u00a0Bikes stolen from Visma-Lease a Bike truck in massive overnight raid at Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a><\/p>\n

With assistance from Movistar and Lidl-Trek, Visma were able to line up fully equipped for stage three, where Jonas Vingegaard retained the red jersey for another day, before losing it to David Gaudu on countback yesterday.<\/p>\n

\"SeppSepp Kuss, Visma-Lease a Bike, stage two, 2025 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a (credit: Zac Williams\/SWpix.com)<\/p>\n

Yet Guercilena warned that the problem has become too serious to ignore. He said: \u201cI think we\u2019re getting to a point where we\u2019ll need to hire real security guards at night, physical security. Now that so many teams are staying in the same hotels, the damage can be huge, especially with equipment becoming more and more valuable.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also explained that Visma\u2019s misfortune was partly down to where their vehicle had to be parked, saying: \u201cThey were a bit unfortunate with how they had to park their trucks at the hotel. We were able to block the back doors of our trucks with a car, but that wasn\u2019t possible where Visma\u2019s truck was parked. I\u2019m sure they would\u2019ve done the same if the layout had allowed it. Maybe things would have turned out differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guercilena added: \u201cWe are dealing with organised crime here, we\u2019re not talking about people just snooping around. During winter training camps in Calpe, we hire security guards. But during stage races, we bring around fifty bikes, including time trial bikes. Not all of that can be stored inside the hotel. And that\u2019s just the bikes. There\u2019s so much more equipment that\u2019s incredibly valuable. We really need to find a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ineos Grenadiers sports director Christian Knees, also speaking to IDLProCycling.com, said there was no easy fix.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could have mechanics sleep inside the trucks, but that comes with serious risks,\u201d said the 44-year-old German. \u201cRight now, it\u2019s just about stolen bikes, but you never know what could happen if someone\u2019s inside. Luckily, Visma still had enough bikes, and the cycling community really steps up in moments like this. Sometimes we hire security guards, and beyond that, all you can do is lock everything as well as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

> British squad hit by bike theft at Tour of Britain as all 14 bikes stolen from mechanic\u2019s van \u2013 just days after team\u2019s rider was hit and \u201cthreatened\u201d by 4×4 driver<\/a><\/p>\n

\"20252025 Cervelo S5 Visma Lease a Bike action (credit: Cervelo)<\/p>\n

The theft took place in the early hours of Monday morning, with Italian police confirming that 18 Cerv\u00e9lo bikes were taken after thieves forced their way into the mechanics\u2019 truck with a pickaxe. According to Visma-Lease a Bike CEO Richard Plugge, several of the stolen machines were later found abandoned in nearby bushes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis morning we woke up and we saw that our truck was broken open and some bikes were stolen,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was really with severe violence that they opened the truck, because it\u2019s almost impossible to open. So for us it was a big shock this morning when we woke up. It\u2019s very sad news.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t know why they left these bikes, but we had several bikes being found again. So, that’s really good for us. But the reason why they left them behind, I don’t know. The mechanics did an incredibly good job by building the bikes that we need. I have to say that we were in the hotel with Movistar and with Trek, and they were both also very kind to help us out with some work. That\u2019s good to see that the teams are working together in this, and we have enough now to start the day, so that\u2019s not a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plugge, who previously headed the AIGCP teams\u2019 association, said that investment in security has declined in recent years. \u201cWhen I was at the AIGCP, we always asked the organisers of the grand tours for security, special security around the hotels. But apparently it\u2019s not anymore the case,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hotel did some work there, and they hired their own security. But to all the teams, I would say be very careful, because apparently the organisers do not organise it themselves. So now we need to do something ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"20252025 Dauphine Visma-Lease a Bike unreleased Cerv\u00e9lo (credit: road.cc)<\/p>\n

Yesterday, Dutch news website NOS reported that most of the stolen bikes remain missing<\/a>, with Italian media valuing the loss at around \u20ac250,000. Fresh replacements were also sent from Visma\u2019s base in the Netherlands to Girona, in time for today\u2019s team time trial. \u201cWe do have experience transporting bikes,\u201d a team spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Visma\u2019s case is only the latest in a long string of high-profile thefts targeting professional squads. At this year\u2019s Tour de France, Cofidis lost 11 Look 795 Blade RS bikes worth around \u00a3125,000<\/a>, including the polka dot-themed set-up of King of the Mountains leader Benjamin Thomas, while in 2024 TotalEnergies also saw 11 bikes and tools taken during the race<\/a>, including Anthony Turgis\u2019s stage-winning machine.<\/p>\n

Lifeplus Wahoo were left devastated at the 2024 Tour of Britain when all 14 of their bikes were stolen in Wrexham<\/a>, forcing rival teams to lend equipment. Co-founder Bob Varney described the raid as \u201can absolute hammer blow to our over-achieving team already on a stretched budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other incidents in recent years have included attempts to steal Bahrain Victorious\u2019s Merida bikes on the eve of Milan-Sanremo<\/a>, the theft of 22 bikes from the Italian national track team<\/a> at the 2021 World Championships in Roubaix, Saint Piran\u2019s loss of \u00a330,000 of equipment<\/a> in the Netherlands, and recent raids that hit Euskaltel-Euskadi\u00a0and Baloise Trek Lions<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Visma-Lease a Bike contend with the overnight theft of 18 Cerv\u00e9lo bikes worth an estimated \u20ac250,000 near…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-97290","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}