Ganna and his companions returned from France after the sensational successes at the Roubaix World Championships, their bicycles did not. And not just those.
The Italian expedition of the cycling world championships was the victim of a theft of at least 400 thousand euros. Twenty bicycles, including 15 time trial racing cars, disappeared from the van parked in front of the hotel.
An opportunity for yet another quarrel between the Italians and the French: "We told the Italians to leave them at the velodrome", says the local police, while the AFP (Agence France Presse) stresses that "the Italians get their bikes stolen".
The van was loaded late in the evening and was supposed to bring the bikes back to Italy today. He remained parked all night in front of the hotel that hosts the national team for this trip: this morning, upon awakening, the nasty surprise. If on Thursday Jonathan Milan, Liam Bertazzo, Simone Consonni and Filippo Ganna repelled the French assault in the pursuit by winning the gold medal, now they must reject the statements of the French police.
"They neglected the recommendation to leave the bikes inside the velodrome until departure," explained Yannick Gomez, deputy director of the Central Directorate of Public Security.
The van therefore remained "unsupervised for several hours" in front of the hotel. The Federciclismo is of a completely different opinion, according to which "from the first detections of the police it emerged that it was the work of professionals", people who "knew which van to break in, despite the controls of the private and guarded parking in which the vehicle was located. ".
Each of the 15 stolen time trial bikes is worth between 25 and 30 thousand euros. But these are custom-made vehicles, with 3D printed handlebars. If they cannot find space on the market for cyclists, the situation is different for that of collectors.
"It was the work of well-organized professionals - comments the head of delegation in Roubaix, Roberto Amadio -. We knew of the difficulty, from this point of view, of the trip and for this reason we chose to stay in a hotel with private and controlled parking even though cost of more demanding daily trips ".
