TotalEnergies, the French team who won stage nine of the Tour de France, have had 11 of their bikes stolen at the race.
The ProTour team were staying at the Village Montanha Lioran hotel in Saint-Jacques-des-Blats on Wednesday, July 10, when the robbery took place in the middle of the night.
Thieves, who have yet to be identified, stole 11 team Enve bikes, including several which were not spares but instead have been ridden during the race so far. All riders at the Tour have at least three bikes.
Steff Cras, a Belgian rider on the team, told Road Code: “They broke into the truck last night and forced to get in. They broke open the door at the side and stole 11 bikes. Nobody heard them.”
Further details about the theft have not yet been released. TotalEnergies said they would be releasing a statement later this evening, but it is understood that new bikes to replace the stolen machines are being sent from the team’s headquarters in Vendée.
Cras added: “I was lucky – they took my third spare bike, but [mechanics] still had to manage to get new bikes ready for today [and] they installed three new bikes this morning. It was not easy.
“We had enough frames in the truck and [enough] equipment – we were lucky we had a lot.”
Uno-X Mobility were also staying in the same hotel just 6km from the finish of stage 11, and the Norwegian team confirmed to Cycling Weekly that “nothing has been stolen from us.”
While burglary at the Tour is uncommon, it is not rare. In 2019, Lotto-Soudal suffered theft amounting to €50,000 worth of equipment.
In June, British team Lifeplus-Wahoo had all 14 of its bikes stolen from a hotel at the Tour of Britain.
