Nowadays, going out for an early morning training ride on a expensive racing bike in London can be very costly, potentially deadly.

For the past two years cyclists on high-end racing bikes and expensive e-bikes have been threatened, attacked and robbed of their prized machines by masked assailants in Regent’s Park.

The park’s popular 4.4km paved loop in central London attracts riders seeking a safe place to train since automobile access is prohibited in the morning. Unfortunately, it has also become a gold mine for criminal gangs to operate what seems to be a “steal to order” bike theft ring.

Pairs of masked men on mopeds or motorcycles lie in wait within Regent’s Park for cyclists to ride by, all the while looking for specific types of bikes to presumably fill orders.

When they identify a high value target, wielding knives, machetes and hammers they brazenly stop the cyclist, push them to the ground, wrestle the bike away and flee with the stolen goods – all in less than 60 seconds.

According to Sean Epstein, head of the Regent’s Park Cyclists advocacy group, 768 police reports (2 per day) were filed in 2023 for crimes involving violent thefts of bicycles in the area, with ~90% of those reports remaining unsolved.

One such incident occurred recently when Bethan Lloyd-Glass, a 52 year-old member the Regents Park Rouleurs club, was robbed of her bike by a masked man.

She told MyLondon, “It was very quiet, about 5:30 in the morning. As I was approaching a canal bridge this motorbike came past me. The pillion [rear] passenger turned around to look at me – I had stopped a few feet away from them. He [then] pushed me off and took the [£8000 Trek] bike. I think I was easy pickings. It was like taking candy from a baby.”

Lloyd-Glass also indicated there were two more violent attacks on the same morning and one in broad daylight a few days later with men wielding hammers.

With the surge in Regent’s park violent bike thefts cyclists have taken to riding in large packs, installing Apple AirTags in their frames and always keeping an eye out for thieves.

Photo Credit: Twitter

© 2019-2025 All Rights Reserved Gran Fondo Daily