bike tour of Europe w/bikes on vans-help

[Ken Robb]

Eleven guys from San Diego are going to Geneva 9/14/04 with their bikesfor a week of Alpine riding. They are hoping to rent 2 vans (Mercedes Vito) from Hertz and are having no luck finding bike racks to rent or buy. They could bring some racks from home if they were sure that they would get the Vitos at the rental agency in Geneva. As most of us know, when renting cars in Europe you are promised a car of a certain rental "class" but if you "reserve" a BMW you may very well get a similar size Mercedes, Audi, etc. so there's no way to know what kind of rack to take.
Any good ideas will be appreciated.

[alembical]

Not sure this will be of much help, but if it was me, I would consider renting a third van for the bikes. You might be able to get by with just 2 vans, if you could fit 9 people in one van, and then 2 people plus all the bikes in the other. Taking over a rack system that may or may not work seems like a big pain. 3 vans will definitely cost more, and may be more of a pain for shutteling, but it would be something I would look into.

Alembical

[MadRocketSci]

you could look into renting a u-haul style trailer...separate the bikes with large pieces of cardboard.

[Andreu]

...
http://www.ideamerge.com/libraryrentingchapter.html

..if it's any help...does mention specifically hiring racks/carriers.
A