A large portion of the European peloton travelling to Canada for Les Grand Prix Cyclistes de Québec et de Montréal faced significant delays Tuesday after their Air Canada flight from Paris experienced mechanical problems.
Oh, Air Canada!
About three-quarters of the riders were scheduled to depart Paris at 9 a.m. for Montréal. The aircraft could not take off due to engine issues, according to Wielerfits. That left riders and their teams stranded on the plane for nearly 90 minutes before having to disembark and wait for a replacement aircraft.
The new flight was scheduled to leave Paris at 1:30 p.m. So they were looking at a total delay of roughly four and a half hours. From Paris, the journey to Montréal takes more than seven hours.
The strike in August
Thankfully, the lads weren’t travelling a month ago when an Air Canada strike really messed things up for travel here. In fact, for some Canadians travelling to the track worlds in the Netherlands, things got really screwy. Flights from Montreal were cancelled due to the strike, leaving Brody Mann, Alex Fangeat and Eve Buczkowski stranded with teammates and coaches.
“It’s been a long two days of travel, with almost no sleep,” Buczkowski said from her hotel in the Netherlands.
Cycling Canada staff scrambled to find a solution. “On Friday night, I think, we were sort of in crisis at that point, and we had to start to think outside the box and pivot our plan,” said Phil Abbott, director of endurance with Cycling Canada.
The team packed their bikes and set off in two 15-passenger vans, towing one of their Cycling Canada trailers packed to capacity. “I don’t think we could have set another bike box in it. We were quickly on our way down to Boston,” Abbott said.
Guillaume Boivin still missing three bikes lost by Air Canada en route to the Tour
In 2022, Israel–Premier Tech’s Guillaume Boivin also had a travel nightmare. When flying to the Tour de France as a last-minute replacement, none of his luggage showed up—bikes, kits, the works. In fact, he still didn’t have it once the race was over—thankfully the ProTeam had plenty of spares.
Canadian Cycling Magazine will be on the scene (thankfully our crew isn’t flying across the pond!) at Les Grand Prix Cyclistes Québec et Montréal with reports, interviews and photos. It will also be broadcast on Flobikes.com.
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Canadian Cycling Magazine…