Canadian cyclists play out real-life version of John Candy movie due to Air Canada strike

CTV News

a day ago

Canada's U20 cycling team, which includes 3 locals, improvised travel plans to make world championships in the Netherlands. CTV London's Brent Lale reports.
A planned trip to Europe turned out to be like the plot of John Candy movie.
When Cycling Canada was set to depart for the Netherlands to compete in the U20 World Championships, their flights from Montreal were cancelled due to the Air Canada strike.
It left St. Thomas, Ont. natives Brody Mann, Alex Fangeat and Eve Buczkowski all stuck with teammates and coaches in Quebec, where they were holding a training camp.
'It's been a long two days of travel, with almost no sleep,' said Buczkowski from her hotel in the Netherlands.
As the projected strike date of Saturday approached, it sent everyone into panic mode.
'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.
Like Candy's characters in Home Alone and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, they packed up their gear and started driving.
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Cycling Canada rented a pair of vans to drive the athletes and coaches from Montreal to Boston, Mass. in order to fly to Amsterdam for this week's World Championships. (Source: Phil Abbott)
'We found two willing drivers and two-15 passenger vans,' says Abbott.
'We grabbed one of our Cycling Canada trailers and we packed it to the gills. I don't think we could have set another bike box in it, and we were quickly on our way down to Boston.'
While they were making the five-hour drive, staff in Ottawa were frantically looking for available flights.
'Delta had available seats which is important and then also, more importantly, the available room for all of our equipment,' he said.
'We travel with 32 bike boxes and they're not small. They're hard to get around and airlines sometimes struggle to take that much luggage. So fortunately, they were able to fit us in, I think less than 24 hours notice.'
The flights arrived early Monday morning.
They weren't the only ones who had to jump through hoops to make it to Europe.
Buczkowski's mom, Ashley, has a tale of her own. She, along with her husband and son, took the train from London to Montreal to meet up with her daughter and planned to fly with them. Those plans quickly were derailed.
'We boarded a bus at 10 p.m. and drove overnight to New York City,' said Ashley.
'We got here at 4:30 a.m. and booked a flight with Delta that left at 7:30 p.m. We toured NYC for the day, but we hadn't slept in over 24 hours.'
An update from Ashley said they arrived in the Netherlands Monday.
'It's been basically three days of very little sleep and we're exhausted,' she said.
Now that everyone has arrived, they can focus on the competition.
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Canada's U20 Cycling team had to drive to Boston, Mass from Montreal, Que. to fly to Amsterdam due to the Air Canada strike. (Source: Phil Abbott)
'I think we're all relieved today to get to the velodrome and unpack, have all of our equipment and see the velodrome,' said Abbott.
'We will be training tomorrow (Tuesday) getting ready for racing.'
They will worry about how they will get home later in the week if the strike continues.