The €11,000 bike belonging to Bryan McCrystal that went missing in transit from Germany on Aer Lingus before Christmas. It has finally emerged from its mystery storage in Frankfurt.
One of the country’s top riders will tomorrow be reunited with his €11,000 top-of-the-range bike after it recently went missing on a flight from Germany to Ireland.
Stickybottle broke the news last week that the bike had not been seen for three weeks and that the maximum compensation payout from Aer Lingus would be just €1,200 if it did not show up.
Its owner Bryan McCrystal said he was convinced his going public had resulted in a more concerted effort by the airline to find the time trial mount.
A triathlete turned bike rider from Dundalk, Co Louth; McCrystal travelled to Frankfurt last month with the bike to attend a launch event for Team ASEA, the new Irish squad he will be riding with this year.
Advertisement
But when he arrived back in Dublin, his bike was not on board the Aer Lingus flight.
He waited for around three weeks for news, but when there was no sign of the bike he became dissatisfied with the airline's efforts to find it and decided to raise the case publicly, turning to stickybottle.
Bryan McCrystal (right) with team mate Damien Shaw and Belfast-born ASEA executive Alan Noble at the event in Germany in early December to mark the creation of the new Team ASEA. It was on the return journey that his bike went missing.
Related News
The bike is a Trek Speed Concept 9 Series TT machine and though the frame is two years old it was recently resprayed in the livery of his new team.
All of the components are new; including the Shimano Di2 Ultegra groupset, a Fast Forward three spoke carbon front wheel and a rear disc wheel.
Fully kitted out, it is one of the fastest and most expensive bikes on the road in Ireland.
McCrystal said he was "over the moon" to learn today that the bike had been found in a container in Frankfurt.
“It’s just such a relief,” he said.
“Time was moving on and I felt I wasn’t getting anywhere.
"But I’m convinced the fact I went public about it in the first place and that got such a reaction that it spurred Aer Lingus on to do their jobs.
“I will be following it up though; I won’t be accepting what happened," he said, adding he wanted to know why the bike had not been loaded on to the plane.
