THE owner of a £12,000 bike stolen in York has offered a £1,000 reward for its return.

Jonathan Chambers from a village near Selby had been competing in the British Cycling National Circuit Race Championship in the city centre on Sunday, and visited friends at a house in The Mount at about 4pm.

The former superbike racer’s red and black custom made Pinarello road bike was taken from the roof rack of his car. Despite his giving chase, the bike has not yet been found.

Mr Chambers, 42, said: “It’s a beautiful area of York and the bike was left locked on the bike rack. We left it for five minutes and it was gone. It’s a sad society we live in. I chased them and could see one of them was pedalling their own bike and holding mine alongside him. I ran back to the car and screamed after them.”

He found one of the bikes used by the thieves, but yesterday, he and his wife Cathy handed out fliers around York, offering a £1,000 reward for information which leads to the bike’s return.

He said: “I can’t tell you how devastated I am. We’ve been told to look in the Huntington area, and people know all about it on Facebook.

“It’s not just about the theft of the bike, it’s about the racing. It was a bad day at the office already, but this was even worse. In the last three months, my dad died unexpectedly in June at the age of 65. I broke my shoulder four weeks before that, and tore a hamstring before that. It’s been a bad year but I’m not going to stop racing because dad wouldn’t want me to.”

In his motorcycling career, Mr Chambers damaged his leg as a youth, and nine years ago broke his back, which led to him taking up cycling instead.

He said: “I smashed my bottom vertebra, and they didn’t know it had broken until I had an MRI a couple of years later. They told me I was the luckiest man alive, because I could have been paralysed from the waist down. I came back from serious injuries so to be able to race these things, is a privilege and I am proving to myself I can still race.

“I came back from that and just to be able to ride a bike is pretty good, I owe a lot to the surgeons so I’m chuffed to bits to be able to race with the guys, but to get my bike taken away from me and stop me racing at the age of 42, it’s devastating.

“It took us six months to build this bike, and I spent £12,000 on it. It’s a big part of my life.”

Two men aged 18 and 19 were arrested and released on bail.