Mark Downey is at a training camp in Spain without much of his cycling kit after Ryanair visited some serious on the road and track international (Photo: Toby Watson)
He was riding high after a terrific first season in the U23 ranks and having recently signed with a Continental level team, but Ryanair has brought one of Ireland’s best young riders crashing down to earth with a bump.
All of the kit packed into Banbridge man Mark Downey’s hand luggage for a track training camp in Barcelona has gone missing.
The airline told him as he was boarding in Dublin airport that because the flight was full and there was no space left in the overhead luggage area, his carry-on bag would need to be placed into the hold of the aircraft.
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But when Downey landed in Barcelona and went to the baggage carousel, a long wait ensued, at the end of which he was left empty-handed.
“It was one of those small cases on wheels so I had a good bit of gear in there and a lot of it was expensive stuff,” a disappointed Downey told stickybottle.
“I had my Specialized Evade helmet in the bag, Sidi shoes, my Garmin, four sets of Oakley sunglass and a Beats pill (wireless speakers).”
He estimated the missing items, combined with some other possessions including cycling and civilian clothing, was worth around €1,000.
“It was the Dublin to Barcelona flight on Tuesday and I was nearly last getting on the plane,” he explained.
“One of the staff told myself and Marc Potts there was no more space for bags in the overhead lockers. She took the bags off the two of us to go in the main luggage hold.”
Downey added he was unsure if there were tags put onto the bags.
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“When we got to Barcelona Marc’s bag arrived alright but there was no sign of mine. We had a connecting flight 30 minutes later (to Palma, Majorca) so I had no time to fill out a claims form.”
Having spent several hours “ringing about 20 people” in the hope of locating his bag on Wednesday Downey had no success and so travelled back to Barcelona.
Downey flew from Palma to Majorca at 7am today, Thursday, and was due to fly back at 9.30pm after a long and fruitless day.
“I was hoping it would be either at the Ryanair desk or lost and found, but not a thing," he said.
“It’s very frustrating; it wasn't my fault. Yet nobody seems to be willing to do anything.”
Downey won a silver medal at the European Junior Track Championships last year. And in his first year at U23 level this year he was selected on a number of Irish development teams on the road.
More recently he has been part of the Irish elite track team, riding team pursuit and individual events.
Just a couple of weeks ago it emerged he would ride for the new Dynamo Cover Continental level pro team next year, alongside his brother and former An Post-Chainreaction rider Sean Downey.
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