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Lance Armstrong, Trek staffers report that Astana time trial bikes, including Armstrong's, stolen from team truck overnight.

Published: Feb. 15, 2009
Armstrong's custom-painted bike.
Armstrong's custom-painted bike.
Photo: Courtesy Trek

Police in Sacramento are investigating the theft of four Team Astana bikes, including Lance Armstrong's time trial bike, from behind a team hotel overnight.

Sacramento Police Department spokesman Konrad Von Schoech told the Sacramento Bee newspaper the bikes were stolen from an unmarked truck that was parked in an alley behind a hotel overnight.

Von Schoech said it wasn't clear whether the thieves were targeting Amstrong.

"We don't have any information that would indicate they specially went after his bike," he told the newspaper.

Lance Armstrong and Trek Bicycle employees reported on their Twitter.com accounts Sunday morning that the four bikes were stolen.

Armstrong posted a picture of his stolen Trek through his Twitter account. "There is only one like it in the world therefore hard to pawn it off. Reward being offered," he wrote.

Trek's Ben Coates confirmed the theft in an email to VeloNews.

"Lance’s TT bike was stolen this morning along with three other Astana team road bikes. The stolen TT is the only one of it’s kind and can easily be spotted," Coates wrote.

SRAM marketing director Michael Zellmann also confirmed the theft, noting that Armstrong's bike had prototype SRAM time trial shifters, the 1090 R2C shifters, and a wireless SRM wattage meter. The SRM handlebar unit was not stolen, Zellmann said.

Armstrong has a backup time trial bike with a different paint job that he could use in the Solvang time trial if the stolen bike is not recovered.

In another Twitter posting, Astanta director Johan Bruyneel said the other three bikes stolen were road bikes belonging to Janez Brajkovic, Steve Morabito and Yaroslav Popovych.

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