Lance Armstrong Loses his Wheels


Lance Armstrong, the victim of a bicycle thief, appealed to his fans on Sunday via Twitter with the hope of getting the skinny on his black and gold racer. His bike was apparently stolen out of the back of an unmarked van carrying his ride and three other bikes belonging to his Astana teammates early Sunday morning. What a drag! The 7-time Tour de France champion had just used the bike in the (Le?) Tour of California's Sacramento prologue on Saturday. (Why didn't they just call it the California Tour?)...Anyway,

There have been reports in the press alleging the stolen vehicle has appeared on both E-bay and Craigslist, but as of today, no leads have surfaced. This one-of-a-kind time-trial bike is reportedly worth more than $10,000.

One might wonder why extra precautions were not taken. After all, cycling fans would covet this objet de désir. And I suspect that many rabid cycling fans might think watching "the bike" being loaded into an unmarked truck and following it around part of the thrill.

But what is the thief doing now? The euphoria has probably worn off, and he realizes that this one-of-a-kind bike is too hot to get rid of by the usual channels. A fence with any intuition will sense the desperation and offer him peanuts. Although he's probably dying to tell someone, he knows he can't.

(How do I know it's a man? Well the crossbar is not skirt friendly, and there's no basket for a purse, laptop or commuter cup. Besides that looks like one uncomfortable seat!)

As the bike lays idle somewhere in someone's garage, poor Lance's only hope is that this thief is also a braggart.

2 comments:

Sabrina | February 18, 2009 at 7:32 PM

Well this just plane sucks... I hope that he finds it soon.. or that someone finds it and returns it to him. Thanks for the story.. :)

Heather | February 18, 2009 at 7:54 PM

Great to see you again! I hope he finds it too. Thanks for following.

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