As Welsh cycle superstar Geraint Thomas wowed crowds watching the Giro’s peloton speed through Italy, it was a different kind of Cambrian six-footer who – some 900 miles away in Oxfordshire - delighted cops from the Italians’ national police academy.

Ispettore Mauro Di Gregorio and Commissario Andrea Gabriellei jetted in to Thames Valley Police’s training base at Upper Heyford to watch officers from the force’s tactical cycle team show-off their skills.

The brainchild of Oxfordshire officer PC Iestyn Llewellyn, the unit of riot police-trained constables on mountain bikes can be deployed to protests, football matches and other public events. 

READ MORE: Meet the bike cops nicking crooks from the saddle

Rather than sirens, the white-helmeted cycle cops are issued with whistles, which they can use to warn others of their presence.

Ispettore Di Gregorio, a police inspector in Padua, near Venice, and area commander for a commune near Genoa, Commissario Gabriellei, were invited to Upper Heyford after PC Llewellyn learnt from the force’s supplier that an Italian team of specialist officers on bikes had bought the same training kit as was in use in the Thames Valley.

“I had to get in touch and find out how we could work together,” he said.

Earlier this May, the Italian officers clipped on their helmets and took to two wheels as they tried for themselves the techniques and moves employed by their Oxfordshire counterparts.

PC Llewellyn said: “These tactics cross borders and language barriers and it was great to hear how they approach different situations.

“They challenged the way we do things, which can only make us better, and they have taken some of what we do back to Italy.

“This is certainly the beginning of a long-term partnership.”

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