12 months ago
SACRAMENTO, CA - Just hours after his triumphant return to cycling on U.S. soil, Lance Armstrong's one-of-a-kind time trial bike was stolen from his trailer parked in a downtown Sacramento alley, police confirmed.
The thief cut the padlock on Armstrong's Team Astana trailer parked in an alley behind the downtown Residence Inn on L Street between 15th and 16th streets some time between 8 p.m. Saturday and 6:30 a.m. Sunday, Sacramento Police Sgt. Norm Leong said.
VIDEO: Astana's Maertens: "Guards...were not there"
Of the 26 bikes parked inside, the thief or thieves grabbed the first four they could reach, including Armstrong's bike and three others belonging to teammates, Leong said.
"Normally, we always park the truck against the wall, but the hotel said, we don't need to do it, we have our guards here all night," Team Astana spokesman Philippe Maertens said. "They were not there."
On his Twitter blog Sunday morning, Armstrong expressed shock at the theft.
"Whoa!! They just came to my room and said our truck was broken into and someone stole my time trial bike! Wtf?!? APB out to the twitterati," Armstrong wrote. "There is only one like it in the world therefore hard to pawn it off. Reward being offered." It was not immediately clear what type of reward was being offered by the Armstrong camp.
Teammate Johann Brunell also put out a message on Twitter reading: "Bad surprise this morning. Our truck got broken in and 4 bikes stolen. Lance's tt bike and Jani's, Popo's and Steve's race bike."
The other riders who lost bikes were Astana team members Janez Brajkovic, Yaroslav Popovych and Steve Morabito.
Armstrong's bike is a specially-modified Trek Equinox TTX 9.9.
"It's an unfortunate asterisk on what was an otherwise perfect event," Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said in a written statement. "The robbery serves as yet another said reminder that crime is a major problem in our city and that we cannot reduce our commitment to public safety."
"We will be looking at all the surveilance video that is available from surrounding businesses. We are hoping to get some leads from surveillance footage and track the thieves down," Sacramento Police spokesman Konrad Von Schoech said.
Von Schoech also warned local bike shops to be on the lookout for someone trying to sell the extremely distinctive bike worth about $10,000.
"We still hope it will come back," Maertens said. "The guy who took it can do nothing with it."
"If you're going to take it, put it in your bedroom and be the only one to ever look at it, it's a good deal. If you show one other person, I don't see how you get away with that," Armstrong said before Sunday's Amgen leg. "Eventually, we'll find it."
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