They stole their bikes???

[Running Mommy]

Just heard that someone stole a few of Astana's bike, including Lances TT rig????
What must that theif be thinking? Do they think they will be able to SELL it??
sheesh!
I can see the craigslist listing now....
"for sale. black and yellow racing bike. Livestrong edition. Got it from a friend so I dont know a lot about it, but it looks fast. Has handlebars that allow you to lay down on the bars and rest when you get tired. 500.00 or best offer".....
:cool::rolleyes::confused:

Bike thieves are just, just, just..... so dang STOOPID!!! - for once denise is at a loss for words..:p

[Zen]

it seems to me they must not have been secured very well.
This isn't the first time a team's bikes have been stolen.
Maybe somebody should sleep in the truck. With a big dog.

i found this take (http://www.velonews.com/article/87870) to be rather amusing.

Did he really say "Twitterati"?

[michelem]

Well, I'm wondering if it wasn't someone from the hotel parking lot security. The reason I say this is because on the local news tonight, someone (the Astana van driver??? can't remember exactly), said that normally they park the van with the doors up tight against a wall so someone can't get in easily. However, the hotel said they didn't need to do that because they would have plenty of security out there. Hmmmm . . . ??? :confused:

Oh, here's an article with the quote:

http://www.news10.net/news/story.aspx?storyid=54827&catid=2


SACRAMENTO, CA - Just hours after his triumphant return to cycling on U.S. soil, Lance Armstrong's one-of-a-kind time trial bike was stolen from his trailer parked in a downtown Sacramento alley, police confirmed.

The thief cut the padlock on Armstrong's Team Astana trailer parked in an alley behind the downtown Residence Inn on L Street between 15th and 16th streets some time between 8 p.m. Saturday and 6:30 a.m. Sunday, Sacramento Police Sgt. Norm Leong said.

VIDEO: Astana's Maertens: "Guards...were not there"

Of the 26 bikes parked inside, the thief or thieves grabbed the first four they could reach, including Armstrong's bike and three others belonging to teammates, Leong said.

"Normally, we always park the truck against the wall, but the hotel said, we don't need to do it, we have our guards here all night," Team Astana spokesman Philippe Maertens said. "They were not there."

On his Twitter blog Sunday morning, Armstrong expressed shock at the theft.

"Whoa!! They just came to my room and said our truck was broken into and someone stole my time trial bike! Wtf?!? APB out to the twitterati," Armstrong wrote. "There is only one like it in the world therefore hard to pawn it off. Reward being offered." It was not immediately clear what type of reward was being offered by the Armstrong camp.

Teammate Johann Brunell also put out a message on Twitter reading: "Bad surprise this morning. Our truck got broken in and 4 bikes stolen. Lance's tt bike and Jani's, Popo's and Steve's race bike."

The other riders who lost bikes were Astana team members Janez Brajkovic, Yaroslav Popovych and Steve Morabito.

Armstrong's bike is a specially-modified Trek Equinox TTX 9.9.

"It's an unfortunate asterisk on what was an otherwise perfect event," Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said in a written statement. "The robbery serves as yet another said reminder that crime is a major problem in our city and that we cannot reduce our commitment to public safety."

"We will be looking at all the surveilance video that is available from surrounding businesses. We are hoping to get some leads from surveillance footage and track the thieves down," Sacramento Police spokesman Konrad Von Schoech said.

Von Schoech also warned local bike shops to be on the lookout for someone trying to sell the extremely distinctive bike worth about $10,000.

"We still hope it will come back," Maertens said. "The guy who took it can do nothing with it."

"If you're going to take it, put it in your bedroom and be the only one to ever look at it, it's a good deal. If you show one other person, I don't see how you get away with that," Armstrong said before Sunday's Amgen leg. "Eventually, we'll find it."


News10/KXTV
Copyright 2009 / All Rights Reserved

[OakLeaf]

Souvenirs. Kept or sold to unscrupulous collectors.

Pro motorcycle racers get their leathers stolen often enough that it's not a "WTF" thing when it happens.

No different from stealing a major work of art. Can't exactly advertise those for sale on the open market, either.

[Zen]

Fan boy chamois sniffers

[xeney]

Man, I wouldn't even lock my beater bike up in that alley.

[Aggie_Ama]

I am still laughing at the Twitterati.

Sounds like an inside job from the security, hope whoever has it enjoys their rare art. They might have been smarter to leave Lance's bike since it is one of a kind of course thieves are usually pretty stupid.

[wackyjacky1]

Fan boy chamois sniffers

I have been LMAO for about five minutes over this! :D :D :D

[uforgot]

Hey, it's on ebay (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190287574443)!

[Running Mommy]

thats pretty dang funny!

[ny biker]

I read somewhere that the van wasn't marked, so they think the thieves might not have known which team they were stealing from.

Anyway, Lance's bike is apparently one of a kind, so it's utterly unfence-able. I guess they could strip the components off and sell them, but the frame screams "I stole this bike from Lance Armstrong!"

[myjas]

The ebay listing is gone but there is one on craigslist.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/bik/1036482091.html

Veronika

[bmccasland]

The ebay listing is gone but there is one on craigslist.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/bik/1036482091.html

Veronika

not any more! Which leaves me to wonder, where are the bikes?

[MartianDestiny]

I read somewhere that the van wasn't marked, so they think the thieves might not have known which team they were stealing from.


I'd really really hope that anyone stealing bikes would know what team it was as soon as they saw Lance's bike in there. It's not hard to guess at that point. Of course they were stealing one of a kind unfenceable goods so the common sense quotient might not be real high...

[ny biker]

I'd really really hope that anyone stealing bikes would know what team it was as soon as they saw Lance's bike in there. It's not hard to guess at that point. Of course they were stealing one of a kind unfenceable goods so the common sense quotient might not be real high...

What I meant was, they didn't know before they opened the van that Astana's bikes were inside. Once the doors were open, they would of course have seen all the logos.

[Possegal]

bike found! The Amgen site with the tour streaming on it, has a blurb that Sacramento police found Lance's bike. On ebay perhaps? ;)

[Running Mommy]

can't wait to hear the back story on this one....

http://www.cyclelicio.us/2009/02/lance-armstrongs-bike-found.html

[ny biker]

Velonews.com is reporting that one of the other bikes was returned to the hotel where it was stolen:

A missing Astana bike reappears
As reported Monday, four bikes were stolen from the Astana team truck parked outside a downtown Sacramento Marriott hotel. Among them were three team road bikes and the custom Trek Livestrong 1274 time trial bike of Lance Armstrong.

In an odd turn of events, Janez Brajkovic’s road bike has reappeared at the hotel. Police phoned the team this morning to alert them to the discovery.

Representatives of the team are not certain if the bike was taken in the same Sunday night incident, or in a separate theft, but hypothesized that media attention might have frightened perpetrators into returning the bike. “It’s one less bike we’re having to build tonight,” said team liason Ben Coates.

[Triskeliongirl]

I also just read on the velonews TOC live feed that they have now recovered Lance's bike too. Seems like the Sacramento police are on top of this!

#
02:16 PM: Armstrong's TT bike recovered
VeloNews' online editor at large has confirmed with the Sacramento police that Lance Armstrong's stolen TT bike has been recovered. More soon.

[MartianDestiny]

What I meant was, they didn't know before they opened the van that Astana's bikes were inside. Once the doors were open, they would of course have seen all the logos.

Gotcha!

With reports of the hotel telling the team additional security would not be necessary I have to wonder though.

[MartianDestiny]

can't wait to hear the back story on this one....

http://www.cyclelicio.us/2009/02/lance-armstrongs-bike-found.html

From the looks of the picture it's only missing a couple thousand dollars worth of wheels... :rolleyes:

[Zen]

From the looks of the picture it's only missing a couple thousand dollars worth of wheels... :rolleyes:

Look for one on the rear of a fixie near you!

[emily_in_nc]

I'd love to know how it was actually recovered. Glad it's back, and hopefully with no damage and no components removed!

[NoNo]

This was the story on CNN today: Bike recovered (http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/02/18/armstrong.bike/index.html)

I just wonder. When I travel with my bike, I don't dare leave it in my car, and it isn't worth nearly as much as that bike. I take it up to the room with me. Why wouldn't they do the same?

[Tuckervill]

Because there are 25 of them in the truck?

Karen

[Zen]

When I travel with my bike, I don't dare leave it in my car, and it isn't worth nearly as much as that bike. I take it up to the room with me. Why wouldn't they do the same?

they're not attached to their bikes like we are. They didn't scrimp and save to buy them. There was someone in the Tour last year who had some sort of mechanical issues and he just chucked his bike as hard as he could into the bushes. That really chapped my rear.

[ny biker]

They each have multiple bikes. They would need a separate room in the hotel to store them all, plus the manpower required to move them in and out of the hotel. So I can see why they leave them in a van. And apparently they usually do take precautions (backing the van up to the wall to make it difficult to open the doors and remove anything).

[limewave]

We leave our bikes in the car. However, we keep them upright in the bed of the truck which has a locking cover. I'd much rather keep them in there then in my hotel room. I just feel like that's the safest thing to do. Hotel rooms are kind-of transient. Staff have keys to the room, cleaning staff come and go, etc. But we are the only ones with keys to the truck.

[NoNo]

But if it disappears from the room, you have an easier road to tracking down the person that took it. In a car, anyone can see it. True, that many bikes would take up a lot of space, but come on, these teams can cover the bill for an extra room. I don't know, that's just the way I feel. Now, what happens to all the junk they throw on the road as they're riding? Is there a clean up crew to pick up all those bottles and wrappers?

[Eden]

Now, what happens to all the junk they throw on the road as they're riding? Is there a clean up crew to pick up all those bottles and wrappers?

Yes indeedy... if the organizer doesn't provide the picking up himself then he'd will likely have to pay the state/city/county (who ever is responsible for the roads) to do it. Our amateur races are pretty sensitive about trash - we'd lose our venues if we were known to leave a lot of junk and the small promoters certainly can't afford a clean up crew, so *NO* throwing of wrappers, bottles can only be discarded if your race has a feed zone and only in the feed zone - where there are people to collect them. If an official sees you intentionally litter you will probably get relegated. Of course the pro races often have the advantage of 1,000's of fans who'd probably scoop up and frame a bar wrapper if they found it.... fist fights have probably broken out over bottles...

[kacie tri-ing]

they're not attached to their bikes like we are. They didn't scrimp and save to buy them. There was someone in the Tour last year who had some sort of mechanical issues and he just chucked his bike as hard as he could into the bushes. That really chapped my rear.

His chain broke when he was about to win a stage. He wrote about it on Bicycling. I was really mad too, but I could almost understand once I read his story. You are right that they are not attached the way we are.