Virgin Blue delays start of Bay Cycling Classic

[pauly7]

Personally I think he should have allowed more time / travelled the day before as Virgin can cancel flights on you! - but I love the quote about McEwen expecting a personal apology from Richard Branson!


Grounded riders vent at McEwen

DISGRUNTLED riders were forced to wait two hours for the headline act of the Bay Cycling Classic, Robbie McEwen, to arrive before the five-day event began yesterday.
While McEwen laid blame squarely on airline Virgin Blue, which should have flown the Tour de France sprint star from the Gold Coast to Melbourne well before the elite men's event was due to start,

Grounded riders vent at McEwen - Sport - theage.com.au

 

[Mal]

Hmmm

Rank outsider | Herald Sun

Queenslander McEwen and two other riders from the Bike Hub/Ridley team, Jon Cantwell and Steve George, were stranded on the Gold Coast because their Virgin Blue flight had been cancelled.

...

The cyclists eventually caught a later flight but were then delayed again in Sydney by a mechanical problem, finally making it to Melbourne at 3.45pm, 75 minutes after the race was due to start.

and

McEwen, the winner of 12 stages in the Tour de France and who earns a seven-figure salary in Europe, denied that it was unprofessional to leave his travel to Victoria to the day of the race.

"Not really, what are the chances of that happening?" he said.

"We were left high and dry. We would have been there three hours early, which is a fair margin of error."

McEwen, the winner of 12 stages in the Tour de France and who earns a seven-figure salary in Europe, denied that it was unprofessional to leave his travel to Victoria to the day of the race.

I can't work out if he's just arrogant or is just a clown. If I was in a professional race, I wouldn't be arriving 3 hours before the race and hoping my bikes turned up at the same time and that everything would connect properly over 2 flights.

 

[JohnK]

I can't work out if he's just arrogant or is just a clown.

I would call it arrogance.

There was a similar situation recently in the UK Premier League Darts. John Part, a two time world champion, would arrive from Canada on the day of the event, most weeks, and had some very embarassing losses.

 

[possumoz]

Virgin Blue didn't cause the delay to the start, the organisers did. If I was one of the other competitors I'd be a mite..."widdled". IMHO the organisers treated everyone else with contempt. They should have disqualified the late starters.