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news
Cycle Task Force Inspector Peter Salter reunites Steve Jensen with the stolen bikeLondon youngster reunited with stolen bike in time to star at National RTTC Champs
Yesterday we reported on the sad story of a Cheltenham family who had £20,000 worth of bicycles stolen at the weekend - today we're able to report the rather happier tale of teenage cyclist George Mew Jensen who was last week reunited with his £3,000 Storck Fenomanalist in time for him to win his age group for the 10 mile time trial at the RTTC National Champs on Sunday.
George who is a dedicated and successful junior racer was able to buy the Fenomanalist frame with a grant from Tower Hamlets council on his 13th birthday – he had spent two years saving the pocket money and prize money needed for the kit to build it up.
Disaster struck for George on 5th of May when his bike was stolen from the Redbridge Cycling Centre at Hog Hill - despite a poster and media appeal by his family the bike appeared to be gone.
George's luck turned when Essex police, acting on information from the Met's Cycle Task Force, seized a van seen leaving Hog Hill with George's bike in the back. They didn't get the bike, but a few days later acting on further information officers from the Cycle Task Force seized another van in Islington which did contain the stolen machine.
George was reunited with his bike on Thursday. Commenting on the outcome of the case, Chief Superintendent Sultan Taylor, Safer Transport Command, said: "The Cycle Task Force is dedicated to tackling cycle theft across London and we are delighted to be able to return Georg's bike back, especially in time for his important competition on Sunday. "Bike thieves should be aware that we will use the full powers of the law and range of tactics to track them down and bring them before the courts."
And not only was the bike's return good news for George as a result of his family's efforts BBC radio presenter Robert Elms and Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet had heard about his plight and raised £700 towards buying George a replacement bike - that money will now go to improving cycle security at Hog Hill.
road.cc's founder and first editor, nowadays to be found riding a spreadsheet. Tony's journey in cycling media started in 1997 as production editor and then deputy editor of Total Bike, acting editor of Total Mountain Bike and then seven years as editor of Cycling Plus. He launched his first cycling website - the Cycling Plus Forum at the turn of the century. In 2006 he left C+ to head up the launch team for Bike Radar which he edited until 2008, when he co-launched the multi-award winning road.cc - finally handing on the reins in 2021 to Jack Sexty. His favourite ride is his ‘commute’ - which he does most days inc weekends and he’s been cycle-commuting since 1994. His favourite bikes are titanium and have disc brakes, though he'd like to own a carbon bike one day.
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9 comments
... but such a wan*er though, hanging onto the mediocrity of fame from the 80s ... quite the tw*t imo .. but back to topic, very good to see any stolen bike returned.
Mine was nicked over 10 years ago, the police recovered mine, so it can happen, nothing worse than that 'bike been nicked' feeling.
Gary Kemp has always been a keen cyclist. If you listen to the lyrics of 'True' they're all about successful wheel building. 'Muscle Bound' is self explanatory....
Accuse me of being a cynic but could the police's interest and activity be down to the celebrity and media involvement?
You're a cynic, but so am I and I can't help but think you're possibly right.
A happy story then and good to hear that the Met is finally taking cycle theft rather more seriously than in the past - when the rather nice suspension forks were stolen from my mountain bike quite a few years ago the interest level from the police in tackling the crime was zero. I knew who had done it and rather than assembling a vigilante force of colleagues I asked the cops at Southwark Police Station to intervene but they did precisely nothing. The police would not even give me a crime number and by the time the vigilante force had then been mustered, my belongings had vanished. I wasn't able to claim insurance and the fact that the forks were not cheap still makes me feel somewhat bitter about the pathetic lack of support from the Met at the time.
Great news and certainly worth of a story. Its not often the police do anything, let alone reunite a bike with its owner.
In all fairness, I think the Met are putting considerably more effort into tackling bike theft than before. A huge number of bikes are recovered, but of those almost 80 - 90% of them never get returned to their owners. Many people don't know the serial number of their bike, which means that it can't be positively identified as theirs.
I thought the same about the TT bike, but there is nothing saying what kind of TT it was, You see the pro's using road bikes with some clip on bars quite often these days unless its pan flat
Good news though and well done for Elms and Kemp raising some cash
Great news, although can't help noticing that the bike in the pic doesn't appear to be a TT bike, which I presumed he would be using if riding at that level?