Like other bike manufacturers, Specialized has a small museum at its headquarters where it exhibits bikes with a special history. This was raided by burglars a few days ago and stripped of some illustrious pieces, as reported by local and several bike media. 16 mountain bikes and racing bikes were stolen, including: Jaroslav Kulhavy's S-Works Epic, on which he won Olympic gold in London, Peter Sagan's S-Works Roubaix, on which he took victory at Paris-Roubaix, and the S-Works Tarmac, on which Fabian Cancellara rode several stages as overall leader at the 2010 Tour de France. Two Stumpjumpers from the personal possession of Specialized founder and owner Mike Syniard are also among the stolen goods, as is the prototype of a full-suspension racing bike called the Scrambled Egger. Specialized estimates the value of the stolen bikes at 160,000 dollars and has offered a reward of 25,000 dollars.

The problem the thieves have: The stolen bikes only become really valuable once their story is known. However, it may be difficult to sell Sagan's or Cancellara's racing bike after their theft has been widely publicized.

A slideshow of almost all stolen bikes can be found at Bicycling.com.