Huge race bike auction means you could own a Tour de France stage winning machine

There is a fun school of thought that says that a bike ridden by a fast rider somehow passes on a little bit of that speed once it is inherited by a new owner.

Yes, it's wacky, and the chances that there's any truth in it are very small. However, if you're at all tempted to test the theory, you now have the opportunity to inherit some serious speed. Tour de France contender speed, in fact.

A huge auction of pro race bikes used by some of the biggest teams in the WorldTour – including Visma-Lease a Bike, Ineos Grenadiers and Soudal Quick-Step – will be running from Friday December 6 till Sunday December 22.

Just in time to give somebody – or indeed yourself – the best Christmas present they've ever had.

There are bikes ridden and raced by the sport's biggest names – Jonas Vingegaard, Wout Van Aert, Geraint Thomas and Remco Evenepoel. Or how about Charlotte Kool, Fem van Empel, or Kristin Faulkner?

There's a lot of WorldTour teams represented in the auction, but not all – if you're looking for a machine previously raced by Tadej Pogačar or Demi Vollering, it looks like you're out of luck.

All 87 bikes in the auction are race-used, including the very bike that Tom Pidcock rode to victory in this year's Amstel Gold Race, and the actual machine that Charlotte Kool rode to two stage wins at this year's Tour de France Femmes.

The auction, called 'Own the Ride' and curated by sports memorabilia auction platform MatchWornShirt, will be run in two phases. The current phase – already underway and finishing on Saturday December 14, features 54 bikes from both male and female riders, all of which have been raced in one or more Grand Tours.

These include Van Aert's Cervélo R5 road bike – the current bid being £5,087 ($6,508); and Neilson Powless's Cannondale SuperSix EVO – currently going for £3,482 ($4,454).

Also in there is Fem van Empel's Cervélo S5 at £2,985 ($3,818) and Charlotte Kool's Scott Foil RC, with £2,157 ($2,760) the current bid.

The second phase of the auction, starting on Sunday December 15, features bikes from a selection of other races, with bikes formerly ridden by Pidcock, Evenepoel and Pauline Ferrand Prevot set to feature.

Co-founder of MatchWornShirt Bob Zonderwijk, said: "Cycling has a hugely engaged community of fans and collectors, so we’re really happy to be partnering with the biggest teams in the sport to give fans the chance to own their own piece of cycling history. And, while football memorabilia is a mainstay of MatchWornShirt, it’s always exciting for us to branch out and cater for fans of other diverse sports.”