An Edinburgh cyclist's luggage and bike, worth £14,000 in total, has ended up in a different country to his destination, after EasyJet incorrectly labelled his belongings at the airport.
Richard Davison, a 55-year-old sports science professor from Dunfermline, flew from Edinburgh Airport to London Stansted on July 3, before making an onward journey to the south of France to compete in the Haute Route Pyrenees cycling race.
However, when he landed at Stansted, his luggage was nowhere to be seen. It transpired that EasyJet staff at Edinburgh Airport had labelled his luggage with another passenger's information, meaning it ended up in Naples, Italy.
With the Haute Route Pyrenees set to start on July 5, Richard had no choice but to continue with his second flight. He still managed to compete in the five-stage race, too, after renting a bike and buying a whole new wardrobe - from his helmet and cycling shoes to normal clothes as well.
Now back at his Dunfermline home, ten days on from the incident, Richard is still without his belongings.
He told Edinburgh Live: "When I got to Edinburgh in the morning it was a 6am flight and the check in had queues out the door, but I got to the bag drop machine and, when I scanned my pass, it said printer error. So the operator said 'don't worry' and came back with two tickets, put them on my bags and then when I got to Stansted there was nothing.
"I asked if that was it and the handlers said yes, so they asked for my luggage receipts and it was only then that I actually looked at them, and it turned out they had printed off tickets for another passenger who was going to Naples.
"In two days time I was about to do a five-day bike race, I spent around ten months getting ready for this and I had done about 5,500 miles worth of training."
Covering 627km over five days, with more than 15,700m of climbing in the Pyrenees mountains, Richard still managed to complete the race. He came 62nd overall, ninth in his age group, finishing with a time of 18-14-20.
However, he is still left chasing the airline for his expensive bike, equipment and other luggage.
An EasyJet spokesperson said: "We are very sorry for the delay in reuniting Mr Davison with his luggage. We are looking into why this happened with our ground handling partners at Edinburgh and Naples as this is not the level of service we expect for our customers and to ensure it is returned to him as soon as possible.
"We will be contacting Mr Davison to apologise and offer a gesture of goodwill for his experience."
Riding my bike and eating copious amounts of food felt liberating, but it was a vicious circle.
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