Polo Tour De France Road Ride - Avignon-Bourg d'Oisans 2013/07/13-20

On the phone to them again, someone slightly more helpful, she's saying we can use registered baggage on this service, she's got me on hold while she checks. It does cost though...

Nope. "There's no-one in avignon to ensure the luggage is loaded safely for the return journey"

And the ticket is non-refundable.

Cunts.

If you get stuck, conductors on TGVs are in my experience, willing to put unbagged bikes in the luggage car for 20€ (2009 prices).

From November last year:

Content
Email on behalf of Eurostar from Via Email (Kate, Eurostar Support) 09/11/2012 04.39 PM
Dear Mr Chidley

Thank you for your e mail,

Please contact Euro Dispatch on 0207 78437752 they will be able to assist you and better equipped to answer this for you.

Kind Regards
Kate, Eurostar Support
Your question By Email (Bill Chidley) 08/11/2012 03.27 PM
Can bicycles be sent as unaccompanied luggage on the Avignon service, as
with the normal Eurostar service?

On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 12:08 PM, Eurostar Support <
eurostar-en@maileu.custhelp.com> wrote:

**

Email on behalf of Eurostar from Via Email (Sam, Eurostar.com support) 08/11/2012 01.08 PM
Dear Mr Chidley,

Thank you for your request.

Sale for the Avignon service 2013 will begin in December 2012, however the date is yet to be confirmed.

Please note that it is not possible to take bicycles on board the Avignon service if they are not in a bicycle bag.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards
Sam, Eurostar Customer Support

I think we should make a massive fuss. I intend to.

I do too; really pissed off about it. I also hold out some hope that a resolution can be found on the direct route...

In any case, I have had another long conversation with customer services who asserted that the baggage allowance was clearly flagged from the beginning of December (a pop up on the site alerting users to changes in the allowance apparently) and that it is also 'clear' that bikes can only be taken onboard on London - Paris/ London - Brussels routes.

I pointed out that it would take a fair amount of initiative from someone who had prior experience of travelling with a bike on Eurostar to seek this information out. So, after several visits to consult with his Manager, it was agreed in principle to refund my (non-flexible) ticket. I mentioned that I was travelling with a party, so, it appears that if we want to, we can pursue this option. I had the guy put a note on my booking to the effect that they were willing to refund, so if we decide to go ahead with this, I'll PM you all with my real name and booking reference so this can be verified when you call them up.

What a palava eh?!

I booked via a third party, was the cheapest, but now eurostar won't do shit for me. So I have to contact Rail Europe direct and see if I can get a refund. Thanks for the email bill, I will use this as reference that we had been told it would be ok with bikes in bike bags.

I think I'm going to sack off the france tour, and do LeJog instead. Anyone interested?

And the May ride is still on BTW.

"I'm going to shit in a jiffy bag and send it to Eurostar."

"You have given out too much Reputation in the last 24 hours, try again later."

I think I'm going to sack off the france tour, and do LeJog instead. Anyone interested?

And the May ride is still on BTW.

lejog on what? keep me in the loop for may.

oh, and bad luck with the eurostar thing. i'm still trying to get my refund through on insurance.

lejog on the road/cross/tourer thing I just got. Will update you about May when you're down next weekend mate.

cool. always wanted to do lejog also

I'm not giving up. I want to do this Tour thing, and, if you all approve of the following letter, I am going to do my best to get some satisfaction. I don't want a refund, I don't want to travel via Brussels, I want to take my bike on the Avignon train.

Dear sir / madam,

I have been using Eurostar services for a number of years, virtually since the service started. I'm not a frequent traveller, but I am certainly a loyal customer.

As you may know, the Tour de France is in the south of France towards the end of July, and visits Le Mont Ventoux on Sunday 14th July, and then goes on to l'Alpe d'Huez on Thursday 20th July. As you may also be aware, British riders and British teams have been doing rather well in the Tour de France recently. As a long-term cycle sportif and fan of the sport, I discerned that it was possible to get the direct train to Avignon on 13th July, ride to Mont Ventoux in the evening, and camp on the flanks of the mountain, and watch the stage, and, hopefully, cheer on a dominant British performance.

It is then a fairly easy 2 day ride to Alpe d'Huez, arriving in the Romanche valley on Tuesday, allowing time to ride up the legendary climb, and then watch the stage, once again in the hopes of seeing British riders dominate. Leaving the Romanche on the Friday, riding downhill, one could easily arrive in Valence in the evening, and either stay nearby or get a local train back to Avignon in the evening, and rejoin the return service on the Saturday.

All of this seemed possible because of a long-standing facility on Eurostar and TGV to bag bikes and store them on the luggage racks. I have done this with my bike many times, mostly to the south of France (Valence, Orange, Avignon, Arles etc) but occasionally to the Alps, Germany and Paris itself. Obviously, it would be preferable to put the bikes on the train whole into a baggage car, or into purpose-built racks, such as there are on Swiss, Dutch, German, Danish etc trains. But even with the inconvenience of bagging and unbagging, and the question of bag storage, the train is an infinitely preferable option to flying, worth the comparatively greater expense for the piece of mind of being able to be sure that the bike will arrive intact at the destination, which is not guaranteed when flying.

I enquired via email in the middle of November about facilities for bikes, hoping that perhaps it was possible that a baggage car with facilities for bikes had been added to the service since I last took it, but I was informed that there wasn't, but bikes could be carried, if in a bag. From this I inferred that the bicycle policy had not changed. I was disappointed that there was no dedicated facilities for bikes, but accepted what I thought was the status quo, as it meant the trip was still possible.

I mentioned my plan to some friends, and they were very enthusiastic about it. We (there are 8 of us) then all purchased tickets on the 13th July service, returning on the 20th, and started laying our plans, studying routes, contacting camp-sites etc. None of us were aware of the change of bicycle policy, apparently made on or before 3rd December 2012. I am told by one of my riding companions that Eurostar claims that this change of policy, i.e. to reduce to size of bag to 85cm from 120cm, which makes it impossible to load any normal bicycle on Eurostar, was clearly flagged on the web-site. I visited the web-site constantly from the end of November to 7th December because I was keen to purchase my ticket as soon as they were available and I did NOT see any such announcement.

I am therefore very, very distressed to find out (via a friend on Twitter!) of this change to your bicycle policy, as this means that our very exciting plans to pay homage to the Tour are severely compromised.

I would also like to mention that Eurodespatch employees have been extremely unhelpful, and dismissive to the point of contempt on the phone to us, with one individual appearing to think that our desire to take our bikes on the train so that we can follow the Tour is absurd and unreasonable. This individual gave us to understand that there IS a baggage car attached to the Avignon service, which makes the situation all the more incomprehensible.

I also understand from other cycling friends that there is another individual at Gare du Nord who appears to hate cyclists and bicycles, and appears to take great pleasure in making their travel with Eurostar as inconvenient as possible. Other people have said there is some confusion amongst Eurostar employees at St Pancras about the new policy, evidenced by a sign which was still up at the terminus in February giving the old bike bag dimensions.

All of this adds to our confusion and dismay about the situation. I look forward to hearing from you on this matter, and hope that you can help us realise our plan to go and follow the Tour with our bikes.

Yours faithfully

Bill Chidley.

Go for it, but I suggest leaving a large nutty chunk of faeces in there too.

I think those of you with the ability and want to do this ride, should all write similar letters.

Nice one, Bill. I'll make a fuss of my own this Monday.

Interesting:

http://www.lfgss.com/thread23429-3.html#post3470203

OK, absolutely zero chance of a refund from RailEurope, they said they can't issue a refund unless I get something in writing from Eurostar admitting that they have misinformed me of the baggage allowance changes. Basically, RailEurope had a notice on the booking page saying no bikes on this service. So I've basically thrown away £170. Fuck sake.

Also, it's non-exchangeable, so I can't even transfer the ticket to another service, like LDN>Paris>Avignon. So I'm 100% out.

Travel insurance?

Ship your bikes to a local bike shop?

Someone drive a van?

no insurance. going to write to them. hopefully some middle-management tosspot will read it and have the heart to issue a refund. Not holding my breath though.

Now if only someone we knew had a van...

Now if only someone we knew had a van...

I have sent the email off. I would expect a response tomorrow or Thursday.

Dont know if you guys knew/know about this;

http://www.bike-express.co.uk/