After up to 18 bikes were stolen from the mechanic’s truck belonging to Visma-Lease a Bike overnight, the team’s CEO, Richard Plugge, revealed that the Dutch squad will start stage 3 of La Vuelta a España with a full set of equipment.
Visma-Lease a Bike’s mechanics worked all morning to secure and build the equipment needed to start the third stage, even gaining some help from their Lidl-Trek and Movistar counterparts who were staying in the same hotel.
“This morning we woke up and we saw that our truck was broken open and some bikes were stolen,” Plugge told Cyclingnews and other gathered press before the start of the stage in San Maurizio Canavese.
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“It was really with severe violence that they opened the truck, because it's almost impossible to open. So for us it was a big shock this morning when we woke up. It's very sad news,” he said, adding that there is an ongoing police investigation.
Several bikes were found early this morning among some bushes after being left by the thieves, however most of the bikes appear to still be missing. “I don't know why they left these bikes, but we had several bikes being found again. So, that's really good for us. But the reason why they left them behind, I don't know,” Plugge said.
It has been an eventful 24 hours for Visma-Lease a Bike after their leader Jonas Vingegaard picked himself off the deck after a crash and won stage 2. In addition, Frenchman Axel Zingle abandoned the race with a shoulder injury.
Plugge revealed that the bike belonging to race leader Vingegaard was not among those that were taken from the truck.
“The mechanics did an incredibly good job by building the bikes that we need. So, they are coming in a minute and then we have enough bikes to race, fortunately,” he said.
“I have to say that we were in the hotel with Movistar and with Trek, and they were both also very kind to help us out with some work. That's good to see that the teams are working together in this, and we have enough now to start the day, so that's not a problem.”
On the subject of the safety of teams, especially in Grand Tours, Plugge said that previously more investment had been given to security at team hotels. He suggested that there is now less security in place than in previous years, when he was president of the AIGCP, the international union of professional cycling teams.
“When I was at the AIGCP, we always asked the organisers of the Grand Tours for security, special security around the hotels. But apparently it's not anymore the case.”
“The hotel did some work there, and they hired their own security. But to all the teams, I would say be very careful, because apparently the organisers do not organise it themselves. So now we need to do something ourselves.”
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