A budding Team GB cyclist has been left too scared to cycle the streets of London after having more than £15,000 worth of bikes stolen by hooded thieves.
Gabby McHugh, 17, a rider for British Cycling’s development squad, was heartbroken to find that the three bikes had vanished from her father’s van at their flat in Clapham, south London, on the morning of February 2.
Only hours earlier, a group of brazen yobs forced entry into the vehicle under the cover of darkness in a moment captured by a neighbour’s CCTV camera.
The video shared with the Daily Mail shows a group of tracksuit-clad men strolling shamelessly with the bikes shortly after 2am, leaving tyre covers strewn across the quiet street in their path.
The bikes, two of which were cutting-edge Pinarello Dogma designs, sell for approximately £5,000 each. Just two days prior, Gabby’s father Matt had bought and loaded one into the van for the first time — unaware he was likely being watched by the criminals.
London-born Gabby has become frightened to cycle around the capital in the wake of the robbery, fearing she could be targeted by moped-riding muggers. The teenager, who hopes to turn professional next year, has previously raced in events across the globe.
‘I was heartbroken and, to be honest, just scared,’ she tells the Mail. ‘I first saw that they were gone on my way to school. I went in the car, looked in the back seat and was just like, ‘Oh my gosh, they’re not there!’
‘You always see things on the news and then when it happens to you, it’s really shocking. When I’m by myself, I don’t really feel safe. I’ve heard stories about people on motorbikes throwing cyclists off their bikes and robbing them. It’s intimidating in London.’
Budding Team GB cyclist Gabby McHugh, 17, has been left scared to cycle in London after robbers stole three bikes from her worth £15,000
In video footage shared with the Daily Mail, the thieves are seen carrying the bikes along Gabby’s street in Clapham, south London
The brazen criminals leave tyre covers strewn across the road in their path before making off with the bikes under the cover of darkness
The robbery of which Gabby and her father were victims is the latest in a crime wave plaguing the capital which has seen bike owners left thousands of pounds out of pocket.
Between January and June 2025, some 6,721 bikes were reported stolen to the Metropolitan Police. Yet during the same period only 39 people were charged, prosecuted or cautioned despite – in many cases – the existence of clear-cut CCTV footage.
Blaming himself, Gabby’s ‘gutted’ father Matt set about tracking down the bikes on the day of the theft. Incredibly, it took him mere hours to uncover one of the alleged thieves.
‘The next day I was sending messages to legitimate bike dealers around London just trying to see what I could find,’ the 57-year-old said.
‘One of them, Marcus’ Bikes in Balham, called me straight away and said he’d seen it on eBay. It was on sale for £3,800. He messaged the seller and they invited him to an address in Nine Elms, Battersea.’
After being passed the seller’s phone number, Matt gave him a call. They agreed to meet at Stockwell Underground Station, south London, to exchange money for the bike. Or, so the thief thought.
‘He sounded like a roadman – kind of dodgy,’ Matt recalls. ‘When I’d agreed to meet him, I went down to Brixton Police Station to try and see if some officers could come with me.
‘A lot of them weren’t too bothered. It was frustrating, they are very busy and I am realistic, but I was basically handing them an arrest. The front desk just told me to call British Transport Police, so I went to their station in Stockwell.
‘Luckily, when I got there, they agreed to send two uniformed officers with me. But, when I went to meet the seller, the police weren’t there in time.
Blaming himself, Gabby’s ‘gutted’ father Matt set about tracking down the bikes on the day of the theft. Incredibly, it took him mere hours to uncover one of the alleged thieves (Gabby is pictured racing in Rwanda for British Cycling)
‘The seller was obviously watching, because once the police had arrived, he cancelled and texted me asking if I was with somebody.
‘To be honest, I doubt they were even going to turn up with the bike because they were expecting me to have nearly £4,000 in cash on me.’
The two rearranged for the following day at 10am but, again, the seller ‘got cold feet’ and cancelled.
The Met Police have since closed the case against the thieves despite the evidence Matt has been able to uncover – including the alleged criminal’s number, address and postcode.
Matt visited the postcode himself in a final bid to retrieve his daughter’s bikes. There, he found a lock-up garage on a Battersea housing estate which, he thinks, is likely where the bikes are being stored.
‘I tried so hard to get them to keep the case open, but it’s closed now,’ Matt says. ‘Why can’t they contact the housing association to see if they know anything?’
Matt estimates that the theft could cost him more than £10,000. On the day the bikes were stolen, he was weighing up quotations from insurers on the new Pinarello, but never finalised anything. Hours later, it was gone.
His is just one example of thousands of bike owners who have been the victims of robberies in London. Some, in broad daylight.
Only last week, just a couple of miles from Matt’s home in Clapham, cycling manager Tony Poole was threatened with a knife while trying to fend off two balaclava-clad thugs ripping a road bike from the top of his Volvo.
And earlier this month, reports emerged that more than a dozen bikes were stolen from a velodrome in Herne Hill during the dead of night.
Matt is urging the Met Police to do more in their bid to tackle the issue, arguing criminals have ‘one up’ on officers.
Just 0.6 per cent of bike theft cases resulted in what the police described as a ‘positive outcome’ last year.
‘It’s not good for cycling – all of the fear and threat. They’re trying to push cycling as a mode of transport but, if people are scared to ride their bikes, it’s not going to get very far,’ Matt says.
‘The police need to be on motorbikes while these thieves are riding mopeds. There’s no prosecution on bike thefts.’
