Thief raids couple's garage and loads five specialist bikes into his van

The distinctive cycles worth a total of £6,000 were stolen from Katy Rankin, who up until 2011 was one of the few women to compete in the British Bike Trials Riding Championship.

The cycles, which belong to Katy, 25, and her partner Dr Alex Dickinson, 30, were stored in a locked garage in a block behind their apartment in Romsey.

One of the couple’s neighbours spotted a man near the garages, accompanied by a boy around ten years old, loading bikes into a black Transit van.

When challenged, the man replied: “I’m picking up a bike from Alex.”

Katy said: “It’s worrying that the thief knew Alex’s name and also must have known we were away that weekend.”

She added that the thief had picked the lock on the garage door.

The man is described as white, about 5ft 10in with a “mop of dark brown hair”.

The couple are both keen cyclists and ride their bikes every weekend and often used the Knightwood BMX track in Valley Park.

Katy believes the thief may have first spotted her and Alex riding at the BMX track and followed them home.

Katy and Alex both work in the engineering department at the University of Southampton, where Katy is doing her PhD.

She gave up competitive cycling in 2011 after developing optic neuritis which caused blurred vision in one eye.

She described one of the bikes – a gold Onza trials bike which had been specially made for her to ride in competitions – as “completely irreplaceable”

The stolen bikes were:

1) A Specialized Allez Elite 52cm 2011 road bike red with silver Planet X seatpost.

2) An Orbea Aqua 57cm 2009 road bike, white frame, exposed carbon forks.

3) An Onza Limey 320 trials bike, in gold with red Monty wheels and white rim tape.

4) An Echo 20in trials bike with black wheels and orange rim tape.

5) A prototype Onza race BMX in bright green.

Three bikes were left in the garage and Katy believes that they were left by the thief after he was approached by the neighbour.

Contact Romsey police on 101.