The 11 Look bikes that were stolen from Cofidis during the Tour de France Grand Départ have now been returned, the team confirmed on Monday.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, ahead of stage 2, 11 bikes worth €13,000 each were stolen from the Cofidis hotel in Bondues, in what the team assumed was the work of an organised gang.
Team staff who searched the local area on Sunday were able to find five of the bikes that had been discarded, but six were still missing.
However, the Tour organisers and the local police began investigating, and on Monday afternoon, the police recovered the remaining bikes near the border with Belgium.
"The Look bikes, stolen overnight from Sunday to Monday, were recovered by law enforcement this Monday afternoon," Cofidis said in a press release. "The national police notified ASO and the Cofidis team that they had recovered them in the village of Halluin, near the Belgian border. The police contacted Cofidis to hand them over to the team staff that evening.
"The team would like to thank everyone—members of law enforcement, ASO, staff, and Cofidis partners—who have been working since yesterday morning."
Since the Cofidis service course is also located in Bondues, the team were able to replace the missing bikes on Sunday and were not disrupted on stages 2 and 3, but were facing a loss of tens of thousands of Euros worth of equipment.
However, the joint effort between local police, the team and race organisers has seen a positive end to the story.
"I had the opportunity to speak with Christian Prudhomme and the [police] prefect," Cofidis general manager Cédric Vasseur said. "This is very good news. I would like to warmly congratulate the Tour de France organization and the law enforcement agencies who did everything possible to find them. Significant investigative work has been carried out and will allow us to continue the Tour de France with peace of mind."
Cofidis' start to the Tour has not been without other woes, however, most recently marked by Bryan Coquard receiving a yellow card for his involvement in Jasper Philipsen's race-ending crash on stage 3, for which he tearfully apologised outside the team bus on Monday evening.
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