TotalEnergies, the French team that triumphed in stage nine of the Tour de France, has fallen victim to a daring theft, with 11 of their bikes disappearing from their hotel.TotalEnergies, the French team that triumphed in stage nine of the Tour de France, has fallen victim to a daring theft, with 11 of their bikes disappearing from their hotel. The ProTour team was lodged at the Village Montanha Lioran in Saint-Jacques-des-Blats when the robbery occurred in the dead of night on Wednesday, July 10. Unidentified thieves managed to break into the team’s truck, forcing their way in and making off with 11 Enve bikes, some of which had been ridden during the race. “They broke into the truck last night and forced to get in,” Belgian rider Steff Cras described to Road Code. “They broke open the door at the side and stole 11 bikes. Nobody heard them.” TotalEnergies has stated that they will release a statement later this evening, but sources indicate that replacement bikes are being dispatched from the team’s base in Vandée. Cras acknowledged the fortunate circumstances that allowed the team to continue racing: “I was lucky – they took my third spare bike, but (mechanics) still had to manage to get new bikes ready for today (and) they installed three new bikes this morning. It was not easy.” The incident marks another occurrence of theft at the Tour, though it remains a relatively infrequent event. In 2019, Lotto-Soudal endured a €50,000 loss due to the theft of equipment, while British team Lifeplus-Wahoo had 14 bikes stolen from a hotel during the Tour of Britain in June.
TotalEnergies, the French team who won stage nine of the Tour de France, have had 11 of their bikes stolen at the race.
The ProTour team were staying at the Village Montanha Lioran hotel in Saint-Jacques-des-Blats on Wednesday, July 10, when the robbery took place in the middle of the night.
