TotalEnergies bikes stolen overnight at the Tour de France

TotalEnergies were targeted at the Tour de France overnight, 11 team bikes and tools stolen, including the main bike of stage nine winner Anthony Turgis.

News of the crime has emerged in the French press this morning and was mentioned by Eurosport commentator Carlton Kirby as the riders began stage 12, police reportedly called to the hotel where TotalEnergies, Uno-X Mobility and Israel Premier Tech stayed last night. 

The other two teams are believed to be unaffected, RMC reporting that Turgis and Thomas Gachingard's main bikes were stolen, the pair no longer having a spare bike at the race until more are sent from the team's HQ.

It is estimated the value of the bikes stolen is around €150,000, TotalEnergies using Enve's Melee model at the race, but the team's manager Jean-René Bernaudeau suggested, value aside, the loss of tools is "especially annoying".

"It's part of the game, it's a bit annoying but it doesn't bother the riders," he said. "We have stock. It's especially annoying for the tool boxes."

The exact circumstances of the break-in have not yet come to light, Belgian rider Steff Cras telling Sporza that even the riders "don't know how it happened" but thieves "broke into our truck and 11 bikes are gone".

"They stole my third spare bike, so I can consider myself lucky, but for some teammates it is a shame that their first bike was stolen," he said.

One such rider was Turgis, whose main bike was taken, possibly the one he rode to stage victory on Sunday.

The high value of top-end road bikes and the plentiful models taken to races by teams has made them an attractive target for criminals in recent times, several similar incidents being reported over the past few years.

Just last month, Lifeplus Wahoo were rocked by the theft of all 14 bikes from a mechanic's van at the Tour of Britain in Wrexham. Riders completed the race on bikes kindly lent to them from other teams including SD Worx, Liv AlUla Jayco, Human Powered Health and Cofidis, the squad's co-founder Bob Varney calling the break-in "an absolute hammer blow to our over-achieving team already on a stretched budget".

In March, a group of thieves attempted to steal Bahrain-Victorious' Merida bikes the night before Milan-Sanremo, only to be thwarted by the team's bus driver and 2021 Paris-Roubaix winner Sonny Colbrelli.

In 2021, 22 bikes were stolen from the Italian track cycling team during the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Roubaix, including Filippo Ganna's gold-painted Pinarello.

The bikes were in a minibus in the car park when they were taken, some of the stolen machines valued at around £25,000 and featuring titanium 3D-printed handlebars worth £8,500.

Police in Romania soon recovered 21 of the bikes after a raid on 14 properties in Vrancea County, along with mobile phones, drugs, and around £5,000 worth of cash.

A few months later, British team Saint Piran also became the victims of bike theft, the Cornwall-based squad losing £30,000 of bikes stolen from a team van in the early hours of a race day in the Netherlands, leaving a "big dent" in their finances.

And then in November 2022, SD Worx issued an appeal after several of the squad’s bikes were stolen in a "brutal burglary".

Most recently, bike thefts targeting Euskaltel-Euskadi and Baloise Trek Lions left both teams unable to race at Tour of Slovenia and Baloise Belgium Tour respectively, after thieves targeted the teams for their high-value kit, stealing their bikes and wheels overnight.