Polish CCC team will race Amstel despite burglary

Only days before Amstel Gold Race, Polish Pro Continental team CCC Sprandi Polkowice lost 18 bikes to burglary in Valkenberg, Netherlands. The team says it was robbed Thursday night but that it will be able to race Sunday’s Dutch WorldTour event.

“It happened on a guarded parking lot in front of our hotel in Valkenburg,” said team director Piotr Wadecki. “All 18 bikes and spare wheels were stolen, despite the fact that the truck was equipped with car alarm and the door was blocked by another team car, parked right in front of it. We don’t know how the burglars managed to go around the security system. Currently we are working on bringing training bikes to the Netherlands, so the riders can race on Sunday.”

The team rides Guerciotti bikes, painted bright orange to match the CCC livery. They are equipped with Campagnolo components and Urus wheels.

Amstel Gold Race is the only one-day WorldTour classic race that the second-tier team was invited to race this spring. Maciej Paterski, 30, will be the team’s leader, having finished ninth in Amstel Gold in 2015. On Sunday, the Pole will race alongside teammates Jan Tratnik, Simone Ponzi, Jonas Koch, Michał Paluta, Adrian Kurek, Frantisek Sisr, and Jakub Kaczmarek.

Coincidentally, U.S. team Sho-Air Twenty20 was also robbed of bicycles earlier this week in California.