Team Cofidis has had more bikes stolen following the theft of 11 bikes at the Tour de France less than two weeks ago.
This time the team’s women’s squad had several bikes stolen ahead of the Baloise Ladies Tour, a Dutch-Belgian stage race, which started on Wednesday evening.
Team manager Arthur Quilliec told Dutch outlet NU: "The police are still actively investigating.
“I can confirm that we've had thieves come through and that several of our Look bikes have been stolen.”
Quillec is not allowed to disclose how many or what types of bikes were stolen “in the interest of the investigation”.
However, the French team were able to begin the opening stage of the Baloise Ladies Tour, which was a prologue, which required only their time trial bikes.
After the opening stage of the men’s Tour de France in Lille on 5 July, thieves stole 11 team-issue Look bikes from the Team Cofidis truck.
Each of the bikes was valued at around €13,000 and they were later recovered. Five of the bikes were found near the team’s hotel. The remaining bikes were found by police on Monday afternoon near the border with Belgium.
“The police have told [Tour de France organisers] ASO and Team Cofidis that the bikes were recovered in the town of Halluin, near the Belgian border. The police officers got in touch with Cofidis in order to return them to the team staff during the evening,” Team Cofidis said in a statement.
“The team wants to thank everyone – members of law enforcement, ASO, the staff and sponsors of Cofidis – who have rallied together since yesterday morning.”
