A WOMAN training to cycle 50 miles in authentic WWII costume was devastated when thieves stole her bike from outside the Newport Centre.

WWII re-enactment enthusiast Helen Boschen, 36, locked up her bike outside the leisure centre but couldn’t find it again when she finished her exercise class on Tuesday (April 7).

Her beloved Raleigh Mantis had been a Christmas present from her parents twenty years ago, and since then the bike has grown up with her and become part of daily life, going on rides to work and the shops as well as on more picturesque cycles along canal towpaths.

After looking at CCTV footage showing the theft, she believes a group scoped out her mountain bike and took it in an organised raid.

In the video, she says a man dressed in a grey tracksuit waits for a lull in passersby and then walks to the bike, does something with the cable lock and then rides away in the opposite direction, keeping his face turned away from CCTV cameras at each point.

Ms Boschen said footage captured others leaving the bike and coming back to it before the theft itself.

Similar bikes go for around £40 on online marketplaces, she said, but the emotional value to her is priceless.

The distinctive turquoise and yellow paint job, and the fact the stickers on the bike were removed, may make it easier to locate. “It’s not like there are a lot of bikes around with that colour scheme”, Ms Boschen said. “It’s very much one of a kind.”

Following the theft, she said: “I feel quite vulnerable to be honest. I have closed and locked both gates at our house and I didn’t sleep the night it happened.”

But she said the sympathetic attitude of staff at the Newport Centre made her feel better about it, as well as hearing that they hope to make bike parking more secure in future after several thefts were reported.

Although training for the charity ride is now more difficult without her bike, Ms Boschen is determined to be fit enough to cycle from Brecon to Cardiff along the Taff Trail on September 26 on a 1940s bike, dressed in full historical costume as well as a pack.

She will ride alongside other members of the Welsh Tommies Group, raising money for the Brecon and Cardiff Military Museums.

A Gwent Police spokeswoman said they had recorded a mountain bike stolen outside the Newport Centre. They asked anyone with information to phone 101 quoting log 458 07/04/15.

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