Piste of Mind – a specialist ski and luggage couriering service – are offering transportation for bikes, promising to take the hassle out of cycling holidays for riders all over the UK.

The company will collect your bike and luggage from your home, or a designated collection point, and deliver it to your hotel or resort ready for your arrival.

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They promise this will cut down on airport hassle. Anyone who has stood at Palma airport whilst every one of 50 bike boxes is loaded into an x-ray machine too small for it, and then removed to be manually scanned, will understand the benefits here.

The service also means you’re free from the worry of your bike failing to make the cut for your plane’s hold, and being put on a later flight. Such delays aren’t ideal on a short trip when every riding day is valuable, and they are becoming increasingly common with large groups travelling together.

Bikes and bags can be delivered to France, Australia, Italy and Switzerland (not Spain, sorry…) and there are discounts available for groups.

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The only drawback? A bike bag or box could set you back between £120 and £200 – each way. There are discounts depending on the weight of your beloved and its carry case, but that’s still quite hefty considering you’re likely to want to purchase travel both ways – potentially adding £240 to £400 to your trip. A bike box on an EasyJet flight to Italy currently sets you back £70 – both ways.

We can’t deny, however, that it would be nice to remove all worry and hassle from our trips and arrive at a hotel to find our bike has got there first. Even if we’d be arriving with a much lighter wallet.

Managing Director at Piste of Mind, Martin Stevenson said: “Piste of Mind is the UK’s specialist oversized luggage provider for leisure pursuits throughout Europe.  With our vast experience and success in the ski sector we know that opening the service up to other sports will be hugely popular and further transform the sports travel market. People don’t want the hassle of carrying bulky equipment through the airports – Piste of Mind takes all this hassle away for the same price of putting often delicate and expensive sports gear in the hold. Why wouldn’t you use it? ”

For further information on Piste of Mind visit www.pisteofmind.com