Bicycle flights become a real scourge in professional cycling. Only a few days after Visma | Lease a Bike was the victim of a burglary during The returnit is now Total energy who suffered the same fate on the Poitou-Charentes Tour. The French training announced on its social networks that it was affected and no less than twenty bikes were stolen during the night from Wednesday to Thursday. “Totalenergies team was faced last night at the flight of twenty bikes”said the team. “”Despite this incident, the team will take the start of the time trial today (Thursday). “
Video – Richard Plugge had expressed himself on these flights of bikes
A disturbing trend
This new episode illustrates a disturbing trend. At the start of the week, on the night of Sunday to Monday, several bikes in the Visma | Lease a Bike had disappeared in a hotel in The return. Part of the stolen equipment has since been found, but the case confirms that the teams have become the target of well -organized operations. This is not a first. When Tour de Francethe male and female teams of Cofidis had also suffered similar flights. As of Total energyshe had already been touched during the large 2024 loop, with eleven steep bikes.
Faced with the multiplication of these cases, the issue of security comes back to the fore. “We must think, as teams, how to better protect ourselves”had explained Richard plugmanager of the Visma | Lease a Bike. “The organization no longer provides security in front of hotels, as was before. This is a point on which you have to seriously work in the future.”
