Chris Writes.

Heading out of the Las Vegas airport, following the Interbike trade show.  Amid the flurry of carbon fiber whatevers and random taiwanese companies selling the next best blinky light (because we need more of those), one thing was missing: there was almost zero Tour de France excitement.  No celebrations of the winner’s team, no captivating images from the race, no one talking about it.  Instead, lots of excitement about old racers, and old racing.  Cipollini was a huge crowd pleaser, so was Greg LeMond.  Current professional racing wasn’t really visible. Lots of excitement about the way things used to be.  Before we were so good at drug testing, perhaps  (sorry, that was a bit cynical).

I worry about the future of professional racing.  If it stops making money for the few sponsors that still support it, who’s left?  Lord knows the bike companies can’t afford to support pro racing alone.

On a positive note, lots of excitement about mountain bikes again (but not XC Racing – more freeride and trail riding, 29′ers, and the typical handful of single speeders).

Just a word of caution if you ever want to fly anywhere with your bike on United: they charge rather extravagant fees to take your bike. How extravagant? Try $85. Each way. Yup, that’s $170 for my bike to get from San Jose to Denver, and back. My own tickets was $280, so by my guess, that’s a 60.7% premium to bring a bike in place of one of my checked bags. As best as I can figure, this is the most expensive bike surcharge in aviation. Continental and American are close behind at $80, Southwest is a relative bargain at $50. Yee-ouch!

The oddest part of all of this is that United is the ‘partner airline’ for the USA Cycling Association, and gives two free bike flight coupons (that’s a $170 value, folks!) with each annual membership. On one hand, they’re trying to establish a partnership and camaraderie with the cycling community. On the other hand, they’re telling people with bikes to screw off and fly with someone else (except for one flight, if you’re a USA cycling member, which I am not on account of my Canadian-ness), because they don’t want to deal with a slightly oversized cardboard box. I would at least understand if they were consistent one way or the other, but for the carrier with the most expensive bike charge to be the partner of the national cycling association seems rather stupid. As a traveler, I’m pissed that my flight price jumped 60% after I purchased it because I brought my bike. As a cyclist, I’m dismayed that a company involved in our sport is so clearly abusing the sport’s own enthusiasts.

You can be sure I’ll avoid United in the future, and somehow, I can’t help but wonder why they thought I’d feel differently about this. Either their marketing department lives on an island without any communication tools beyond smoke signals, or they’re simply and hopelessly unaware what it’s like to be a cyclist, particularly one flying on United with a bike. Whatever the reason, the result is the same: I’m not flying United again.

As an aside, it would be great if Travelocity saved in my profile some marker to note that I often travel with a bike, and would offer to display my flight price options alongside any additional bike-related charges when I price out my flights. Carriers such as Delta and JetBlue do not charge any extra for bikes (provided they fit within a standard size constraint), but it’s not something you find out in the process of buying a ticket. Knowing this as a cyclist, I’m more likely to fly Delta or JetBlue (in fact exactly $170 more likely), despite the fact that they don’t sponsor any cycling teams that I know of. In a way, these carriers sponsor *ME*, by not charging me extra for bringing my bike on a trip. Team Me, with a roster of 1 – the customer. Doesn’t that make more sense?