Two racers competing in the IRONMAN North American Championship Tulsa for the first time had their bikes stolen.
“It was just kind of surreal, really,” Matthew Delgado, one of the racers said.
Delgado and his brother-in-law are still in disbelief. They traveled here from Indiana to be part of this weekend's IRONMAN race. Friday night they were working on their bikes to get them ready for the big day when they were stolen.
“We went inside for a couple of minutes, came back out, I mean we were not inside more than 10 minutes and when we came back out, two of our bikes had been stolen from us,” Delgado said.
Thieves couldn't rob their dream.
Determined to compete, they spent all night trying to find a bike because they had to be turned in by 10 a.m. Saturday morning.
“We reached out to a company and we were able to rent a bike out here and be fitted for it so we’re ready to go, I mean we haven’t really ridden it or trained on it…but we have a bike to compete,” Delgado said.
He said the thieves stole roughly $5,000 worth in equipment and they each spent $500 on the bike rentals, an additional expense they were not anticipating.
“This situation isn’t great or ideal, but I guess that’s what the IRONMAN is right, it’s pretty rough pretty hard…so just about overcoming so we’ll overcome this and we’ll compete tomorrow,” he said.
If you saw or know anything please reach out.
Delgado said he and his brother-in-law made a significant investment on those bikes and it would be great to get them back.
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