Spanish police helped five-time Tour de France champion Miguel ‘Big Mig’ Indurain recover his bike stolen on 18 March while training for the Titan Desert Morocco mountain bike race.

The 59 year-old Indurain, who is still an active rider and gran fondo organizer, was in the Catalan coastal town of La Pineda preparing with his team for the upcoming Titan Desert Morocco race when someone broke into his van and stole a prized 7000 euro bike.

Although he reported the theft to police, he had little hopes of ever seeing the bike again.

Nonetheless, the police had ideas on who the thieves were and kept an eye on several local teenagers. Then, on 27 March late at night police saw the teens with Indurain’s bike and proceeded to arrest them after they tried to flee on foot.

On Friday 5 April police returned Indurain’s bike to the legendary Tour de France champion – the only champion to win five times consecutively. In a police video Indurain thanked the officers, “for the effort they made to solve this case and recover my bike which I need to go to the Titan”.

Indurain can now finish training for the 6-day 600km Titan Desert Morocco mountain bike race taking place 28 April – 3 May in Morocco.

Photo Credit: Mossos d’Esquadra

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