Barry Quigley on his new 'Look 566' black bike which was stolen after the Naas CC Wicklow Peaks Cycling Challenge on Sunday.
A rider with Naas Cycling Club, Barry Quigley has had his new €3,000 bike stolen at a sportive promoted by the Kildare based outfit.
But the unusual twist to the story is that the bike appears to have been robbed by a fellow cyclist, dressed in full kit including expensive looking shades, helmet and what appear to be cycling shoes.
The robbery in Naas after last Sunday’s Wicklow Peaks Cycling Challenge was captured on the CCTV system of a nearby garage. Quigley has viewed the footage and said the thief looks like an experienced cyclist.
“He clipped his shoes into the pedals and off he went on the bike,” he told stickybottle.
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Quigley bought the Look 566 bike back last November. But having ridden during winter on a training bike, he said he had only used the Look around 10 times before it was stolen.
“It was new and to replace it tomorrow exactly the way it was, with the components I had on it, you are looking at €3,000 so it was a very expensive day for me.”
After the sportive, in aid of the Saplings Autism Charity, he returned to the finish area at Finlay Motors around 3km from the centre of Naas last Sunday.
“I came back about 3 o’clock and was wrecked after it because I had pushed hard and I left the bike outside when I went in for a cup of tea,” he said.
“I was probably 10 minutes in there and when I came out the bike was gone. There was a whole load of bikes against the railings, but I put my bike over the railings so it wouldn’t get scratched.
“When we saw the CCTV, you could see your man’s two hands going up in the air to get the bike and lift it back over the railings.
“He walked up and down twice looking at all the bikes. Then he went back to a doorway to make sure nobody was coming out. And once he saw nobody was there he made a beeline for the bike and lifted it and walked off.
“He went towards the back of the garage, checked out the bike and jumped up onto it and off he went, out of the view of the camera.”
Quigley said while it was possible the thief was not a cyclist but had simply dressed in cyclist’s clothing to blend in as he checked out the area for a bike to rob, his movements suggested he was a bike rider.
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“He hopped onto the bike, clipped into the pedals and off he went in the direction of the main Rathangan road. He knew what he was at. He went up and down and he zoned in on this bike.”
Quigley, a 56-year-old from Naas, came back to cycling around eight years ago having ridden the Maracycle many years ago before a break from the bike game.
He was made redundant from his job last Friday, just two days before the bike was stolen though is thankfully about to start in a new job.
The robbery has now been reported to the gardai in Naas.
A photo of the same bike stolen from Barry Quigley, except his had a black saddle when it was lifted at the weekend.
Stickybottle has seen images from the CCTV of a cyclist, or at least a man dressed as a cyclist, seen in the area at the time of the robbery and who is described as a “person of interest”.
The rider has a pair of black shoes on – they look like cycling shoes but could possibly be trainers.
He is wearing a black pair of shorts; possibly Castelli with small red scorpion logo near the bottoms of the legs.
His helmet is a red, white and blue striped design; with a thick red stripe covering the middle of the helmet front to back, two narrower white stripes on either side of the main blue panel front to back and then a further blue stripe on each side to the rim of the helmet.
The jersey being worn by the cyclist of interest is light blue in the stomach and chest area, while the short sleeves are also mostly blue.
A panel, which looks to be red in colour, stretches from the collar of the jersey covers the front of the arm and continues as a panel down the side of the jersey all the way to the waist; essentially framing the blue body of the top.
And similarly, the same panelling stretches from the neck of the jersey down the back of the arm.
While the front of the jersey is blue - it could be described as sky blue - there may be writing or a logo of some kind on the chest and stomach area.
Anyone who thinks they may recognise the description of the jersey or may have seen the bike or been offered it for sale since last weekend can contact us here on the site or Naas Cycling Club.
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