A group of Irish riders who had travelled to Iceland for a dream trip booked over two years ago were dealt a massive blow when their bike bags were left behind at Dublin Airport. Some of the riders had electronic tags in their bags and could do nothing but watch on from Iceland as their bikes didn’t move from the apron of the Dublin Airport runway for two days.
Unfortunately, the bikes did not arrive in time for the start of the event they had gone to Iceland to compete in; The Rift. The event is a 200km off-road gravel race through the dark lava fields in Iceland’s highlands.
The Irish cyclists had booked their places back in 2019 for the 2020 edition, which was cancelled due to Covid-19. When they were unable to travel again last year, their entries carried over to the 2022 event held last Saturday.
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They flew from Dublin to Reykjavik on an Iceland Air flight on the morning of last Thursday week, expecting to have plenty of time after arrival to get settled in and prepare for last Saturday’s event.
When their bike bags did not arrive in Iceland, three of the riders checked their phones and could see from the location of their security tags that their bags were still on the tarmac at the departure gate in Dublin. As they anxiously monitored the bags for the rest of the day, and the following day, the bags did not budge.
They were then forced into a scramble to try and source bikes so they could ride the event. Two of them rode on borrowed bikes, two on rented bikes – costing €250 - and the other was forced to miss the event.
To make matters worse, some of the cyclists had packed all of their cycling kit – clothing, shoes, tools – into their bike bags. It meant they had to source all of that equipment by dashing around Reykjavik last Friday.
Paul Caldwell told stickybottle he had spent the best part of €1,000 replacing kit and traveling around in the process so he could ride the event.
“I’m still pretty tired after it all, I must admit,” said Caldwell looking back on it a week later. “The lads had the airtags in their bike bags and when we got to Iceland they said after a while their tags were pinging from Dublin. I was saying to them ‘ah lads you’re joking’. I thought it was a laugh. We were standing there looking at each other…”
Caldwell said one of their group was an Irish-Canadian rider, Dermot Barry Murphy, who had offered to give him a lift on arrival in Iceland. However, Murphy then became Caldwell’s transport – as his bike was gone.
Caldwell said his initial tactic was to simply hope the bikes would turn up the next day, which they did not. And at that point the full-on dash to find bikes and kit went into overdrive. He had messaged some Facebook groups of Icelandic cyclists, which resulted in him and another of the Irish lads being offered a loan of two bikes for the event.
“All I had was a helmet, that was it. Everything else was in the bag – I had socks and helmet, nothing else. I had to buy shoes, jersey, other bits and pieces. When I actually went out and did the race I had no pump, all I had was a tube. I had no multi tool even.
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“I rode with way too much pressure in the tyres just so I wouldn’t get a flat because its barren landscape in lava fields. It was very uncomfortable. I got through it, but man it was tough,” he said, adding the whole experience took the enjoyment out of the trip.
“I had to buy nutrition products in a supermarket. I’d never used it before and I got to 120km into the race and my stomach just turned. It was the same with the bike; it was grand for about 100k and then it just started getting really uncomfortable, whatever way it was set up.
“I had been hoping to do well in my age category, hoping to push it on a bit. I would have been good on the day but, sure it was what it was. But, man, it’s so disappointing," he said of the event which he completed in 8hrs 39mins.
"I can’t explain the feeling with the lads said the bikes were still in Dublin when we got there. And I think it was even worse the next day. I thought they might just put the bikes on the Friday flight and that was the last chance really. That was it, that was when your heart sank.
“I’ve flown 20 times, if not more, with a bike bag and I never had a problem. I’ve even had connecting flights and no problems. But Dublin is chaotic. Even when we tried to ring someone about the bags – the handling partners even – nobody answers the phone and I haven’t got one email back.
“In the end, the bikes ended up in Iceland on Sunday so I just told them to hold it there (in the airport) and I brought it home with me the next day. But when we got back to Dublin, we were sitting at the baggage claim and all the bags had come out expect our bike bags. But they came out two hours later; one of the lags tracked it with his tag and told (the staff) they may go and get them.”
Another of the group, David Dowdall, said while he was disappointed over what happened, he had travelled to Iceland both for the event and for a week’s holiday with his wife. And because the race was not his main reason for traveling, he took a slightly more relaxed approached.
When it became clear to him that his bike was in Dublin and was not going to arrive in time for the race, he opted out of the event. And when his bike bag arrived on Sunday he went out and rode the course on his own, so still felt he took in a fantastic experience.
“The other lads did whatever they had to do to get to the start line, which is obviously not ideal for a 200k gravel race,” he said. “You really want to have your own bike, your own gear. We’d all booked it in 2019, so it was in the makings since then. But it was worse for the other lads than for me.”
Dowdall said that through a contact in Dublin, he was able to raise the case of the missing bags with staff in Dublin Airport, though he was unsure if that was the reason the bikes eventually got to Iceland. He added that on Friday evening he received an email from Iceland Air saying they were still pursuing the case, but they had been able to contact Dublin Airport.
Dowdall added watching the trackers and seeing the bags were still outside the gate, where they boarded the plane at Dublin Airport, was frustrating.
“My worry was, what do you do if you came back to Dublin and landed and the you could see the bikes outside the gate and the you were walking by it? Do you go over and grab your bag?”
