Cycling’s big prize latest to go missing
Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas is asking thieves to return the trophy he won in July after it was stolen recently from an exhibition in Birmingham, 100 miles northwest of London.
The trophy was on loan to Pinarello, an Italian bicycle manufacturer, and was one of three trophies on display at the recent Cycle Show at the National Exhibition Center, according to Team Sky, of which Thomas is a member.
“It goes without saying that the trophy is of pretty limited value to whoever took it, but means a lot to me and to the team,” he said in a statement Wednesday. “Hopefully whoever took it will have the good grace to return it.”
The West Midlands police said in a statement that the theft was reported Oct. 2. The trophy had been left unattended during cleanup at the end of the show. A representative for the police declined to give further details, saying that they were still investigating.
“We accept full responsibility and have personally apologized to Geraint,” Pinarello managing director Richard Hemington said. “Obviously, we all hope that the trophy can be recovered.”
Athletes have long been targeted by thieves who take off with their prizes.
During the 1962 NHL playoffs, a fan took the Stanley Cup out of a glass case where it was on display in Chicago, but he was quickly stopped by police. In 1970, the Cup’s trophy collar was stolen from the Hockey Hall of Fame before returning seven years later, found in a Toronto cleaning store wrapped like a Christmas present.
In 1966, the World Cup trophy was stolen from a display case in Westminster, London, months before England’s soccer team won the tournament on home soil. It was later found with the help of Pickles, a mixed-breed collie who discovered it wrapped in newspaper on the street near the wheel of a car, according to news reports.
A number of Pete Sampras’ tennis trophies were stolen from a public storage unit in West Los Angeles in 2010. Sampras said the loss was “like having the history of my tennis life taken away.”