Unibet Rose Rockets have become the latest in a long line of pro cycling teams to fall victim to bike thieves, after the squad’s van was raided in France this week, leaving the team scrabbling to find bikes for its next races in Spain.
The ambitious Dutch squad were travelling through France on the way to this weekend’s back-to-back Ordiziako Klasika and Vuelta a Castilla y León races in Spain when their van, housing most of the team’s bikes, was broken into near Poitiers in western France on Wednesday night.
The thieves smashed through the van window before forcibly prizing open its back door, stealing “a number” of the squad’s Rose Bikes, the team, which is currently home to Dylan Groenewegen and Wout Poels, said on social media.
Fortunately for Unibet Rose Rockets, their riders will still be able to take to the start in Spain at the weekend, after a concerted effort was made to transport spare bikes to the races.
“Not exactly the kind of start to a race week we were hoping for,” the squad said in a statement on social media on Thursday.
“Last night, while on the way to our upcoming races in Spain, our team van was broken into in the Poitiers area of France. A number of our Rose Bikes were stolen.
“Bike theft is, unfortunately, something that happens far too often in cycling. It sucks, it’s frustrating, and it’s certainly not how we planned to start our race week.
“But Rocketeers don’t stop that easily. Our team immediately got to work and, thanks to a huge effort from everyone involved, we’ve managed to find a solution and we will still be able to line up at both the Ordiziako Klasika and Vuelta a Castilla y León.”
The team then called on anyone who spots one of the squad’s brightly coloured bikes for sale to contact them.
“And to whoever took our bikes: we get it, Rose Bikes are pretty nice. But stealing them is definitely not the way to get your hands on one,” they said.
Thieves targeting professional cycling teams has become a worryingly common trend in recent years. Last August, 20 bikes belonging to TotalEnergies were stolen at a stage race in the west of France, just days on from Visma-Lease a Bike’s truck being targeted in a similar raid which saw 18 bikes taken at the start of the Vuelta a España in Turin.
At the 2025 Tour de France, Cofidis were hit by a major break-in, as 11 of team’s Look 795 Blade RS bikes, totalling £125,000 and including a red-and-white polka dot-themed set-up for then-King of the Mountains leader Benjamin Thomas, were stolen from their mechanics’ truck ahead of stage two.
Lifeplus Wahoo were also rocked by the theft of all 14 bikes from a mechanics’ van at the 2024 Tour of Britain Women in Wrexham. Riders completed the race on bikes kindly lent to them from other teams including SD Worx, Liv AlUla Jayco, Human Powered Health and Cofidis, the squad’s co-founder Bob Varney calling the break-in “an absolute hammer blow to our over-achieving team already on a stretched budget”.
In March 2024, a group of thieves attempted to steal Bahrain-Victorious’ Merida bikes the night before Milan-Sanremo, only to be thwarted by the team’s bus driver and 2021 Paris-Roubaix winner Sonny Colbrelli.
And in 2021, 22 bikes were stolen from the Italian track cycling team during the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Roubaix, including Filippo Ganna’s gold-painted Pinarello.
