“Thieves 0 - Team 1”: Bahrain Victorious hit with bike theft attempt on Milan-San Remo’s eve, but Sonny Colbrelli came to the rescue

On a day when the sun-drenched streets of Italy overlooking the azure Ligurian Sea were set alight by the peloton in the first monument of the season as riders chased each other down for glory, perhaps action as dramatic if not more, had already taken place on the preceding night at Bahrain Victorious’ hotel.

As bike theft threatens to become a commonplace occurrence with fears of the crime being “effectively decriminalised” in the UK, the knowledge that even the best riders in the world’s top cycling teams aren’t immune to such events may come as some sort of sadistic relief to a few readers.

The details of the incident were revealed by none other than former Italian pro and 2021 Paris-Roubaix winner Sonny Colbrelli, who raced for Bahrain-Merida for five years and eventually came to their rescue in chasing the thieves away.

Speaking to Italian website Tuttobici, Colbrelli said that a group of thugs attempted a break-in at the Casarile hotel where the team was staying last night. “Last night we were in the hall of the hotel and we heard someone shout: ‘The bikes! The bikes!’,” he said. “It was our bus driver in his boxers and he’d seen people trying to steal the bikes.”

“We went outside and there were about ten young people. At one point, a car almost hit me but I just avoided it.

“Then we started running after them and I followed them into the woods. They got away by car but I got in a car too and chased them at speed but we didn't catch them. In the end, the staff slept with three or four bikes in their rooms.”

> Bike thieves target pro teams at Tour of Slovenia and Baloise Belgium Tour 

Fred Wright's Merida Reacto, along with other Bahrain Victorious bikes (Sonny Colbrelli on Instagram)

One of those bikes belonged to 2022 Milan-San Remo’s victor, Matej Mohorič, with the Slovenian having previously informed that he won’t be using a dropper post — the eyebrow-raising tech borrowed from mountain biking that aided him in his death-defying descent of the Poggio two years ago — this time around, as the Merida Reacto aero frames weren’t compatible.

But even without the dropper post, Mohorič proved his worth on the Poggio descent once again, taking the lead of the race for a brief period of time, before being caught up by the equally brilliant Tom Pidcock, albeit on the flats. They ended the race in sixth and eleventh positions, respectively.

The victory instead went to a Alpecin-Deceuninck’s Jasper Philpsen, the sprinter who was in hot form throughout last season and seems to have picked up right where he left off.

Philipsen beat Michael Matthews, who's been on the podium in 2015 and 2020 previously, and pre-race favourite Tadej Pogačar, in a photo-finish to the line, after teammate Mathieu van der Poel, last year’s Milan-San Remo winner, rather selflessly performed another inch and second-perfect leadout that’s becoming a trademark move from the Belgium team.

📏 288 KM, 6 hours, 15 minutes and 44 seconds, but the smallest of margins to separate @JasperPhilipsen and @blingmatthews #MilanoSanremo | #BornToDare pic.twitter.com/jH2839DkdZ

— Milano Sanremo (@Milano_Sanremo) March 16, 2024

Meanwhile, much to the relief of Bahrain Victorious’ riders, Colbrelli joked to the Italian press: “Ladro (or thieves) 0 - Bahrain 1” after miraculously averting what could’ve been a disastrous theft.

The team’s DS Franco Pellizotti and Colbrelli also shared pictures of the bikes in their rooms on Instagram, with Pellizotti writing: “My room… after the attempted theft before the monument. Good night Merida bikes”.

In Colbrelli's image, Britain's National road champion Fred Wright's bike can also be seen. 

Maybe the not the most impressive bike storage system, but efficient enough to keep thieves away? (image by Franco Pellizotti on Instagram)​

Colbrelli, of course, knows a thing or two about miracles. The 33-year-old had a close escape with death, after he collapsed suffering a cardiac arrest shortly after finishing second on the opening stage of Volta a Catalunya in 2022.

He had to be fitted with a defibrillator as medics performed CPR to help the rider regain consciousness. Thankfully, he was discharged a month later from hospital, however the incident drew his racing career to a close.

> Brazen bike thieves foiled in dramatic pursuit after nicking Bromptons from front of store and threatening to knife chasing shop manager

Weirdly enough, this is far from the first time that thieves have targeted a racing team to steal bikes. In 2021, 22 bikes from the Italian track cycling team during the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Roubaix, including Filippo Ganna’s gold-painted Pinarello.

The bikes were in a minibus in the carpark, ready to be returned to Italy when they were taken. Some of the stolen machines were valued at around £25,000 and had titanium 3D-printed handlebars worth £8,500.

It was the Romanian police’s turn to come to the rescue then, as they recovered 21 of the bikes after a raid on 14 properties in Vrancea County, along with mobile phones, drugs and around £5,000 worth of cash.

A few months later, British team Saint Piran were also the victim of a bike theft, the Cornwall-based team losing £30,000 of bikes stolen from a team van in the early hours of a race day in the Netherlands last June, leaving a "big dent" in the team's finances.

And then in November 2022, dominant women’s team SDWorx issued an appeal after several of the squad’s bikes were stolen in what has been described as a “brutal burglary”.

Most recently, these bike thefts ended up proving critical for Euskaltel-Euskadi and Baloise Trek Lions who were rendered unable to race at Tour of Slovenia and Baloise Belgium Tour respectively, after bike thieves targeted the teams for their high-value kit, stealing their bikes and wheels overnight.