Mark Downey has endured a testing few weeks but at least some good news has emerged about his 'vanished without trace' bag on Ryanair (Photo: Toby Watson)
It’s been a roller coaster and very trying couple of weeks for one of Ireland’s best young riders Mark Downey.
But today, Friday, he got a glimmer of good news with the re-emergence of baggage containing cycling kit valued at well over €1,000 that went missing on a Ryanair flight.
It all appears to be present and correct and the Banbridge teenager should get his hands on it in the next few days.
It was an unexpected development as the bag went missing three weeks ago meaning Downey had given up hope of seeing it or his kit again.
“I couldn’t believe it when Ryanair rang this morning,” he told stickybottle.
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“It’s being posted to my house in the North so I should have it back by Monday and they have confirmed it’s definitely my bag."
Downey said it appears the luggage, which should have been put onto a flight he was taking to a training camp in Spain, never left Dublin Airport.
He was one of the last onto the Barcelona-bound flight with fellow cyclist Marc Potts on Tuesday, November 17th.
As they were boarding, Ryanair staff informed them there was no room left in the overhead lockers for their carry-on luggage.
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It meant the bags were taken off them to be placed in the luggage hold. But while Potts' bag turned up at the other end, Downey’s was nowhere to be seen.
To make matters worse, they had a connecting flight to Palma so had to leave the airport having had the chance to make only brief inquiries.
And when the bag did not turn up the next day, Downey spent a huge amount of time on the phone trying to track it down; detracting from the track camp he had travelled to.
He even flew back to Barcelona Airport for a day to try to find the bag, to no avail, before returning to Palma.
“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 said at the time.
He estimated the missing items, combined with some other possessions including cycling and civilian clothing, was worth well over €1,000
News the bag has been found comes exactly one week after it emerged the would-be UCI Continental team Downey had signed for, Dynamo Cover, had collapsed.
The return of his bag will be little consolation in that context, but at least it is positive news.
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