'We have enough bikes to race' - Visma's Vuelta continues despite theft

Race leader Jonas Vingegaard and his Visma | Lease a Bike teammates reported for duty as normal on stage 3 of the Vuelta a España despite the overnight theft of several bikes from outside the squad’s hotel.

18 bikes with an estimated total value of €250,000 were stolen after thieves broke into a Visma truck parked outside their hotel, but manager Richard Plugge confirmed that the team had sufficient additional equipment to continue in the Vuelta.

“It was indeed bad news because the truck was broken open and some bikes were stolen so then we found ourselves in the investigation of the police this morning and that’s not how you want to start the day, especially not after the successful day of yesterday,” Plugge said.

“But the mechanics did an incredibly good job by building the bikes we need. We have enough bikes to race, fortunately, so that’s good.” 

Het Laatste Nieuws reported that three of the stolen bikes had already been recovered nearby. Plugge confirmed that some bikes had been found, though he did not specify the number.

“There were bikes found, indeed, but we are still in the police investigation,” he said. “I don’t know why they left these bikes. We had several bikes found again and that’s good for us. The reason why they left them behind, I don’t know.”

Plugge also paid tribute to the solidarity shown by Movistar and Lidl-Trek, who were staying in the same hotel outside Turin on Sunday night.

“I have to say they were very kind in helping us out with some work,” Plugge said. “That’s good to see, that the teams are working together in this. We have enough now to start the day and that’s not a problem.”

Visma started stage 3 with seven riders as Axel Zingle was forced to abandon after dislocating his shoulder in the mass crash on Sunday. Vingegaard also came down in the same incident, but the Dane recovered quickly and then sprinted to victory at Limone Piemonte to move into red jersey of race leader.

Vingegaard has a lead of four seconds over Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) and six over David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ). The Vuelta remains in Italy on stage 3 with a 134.6km leg to Ceres.