Christian Meier confirmed for Orica-GreenEdge’s Tour de France squad

On Friday, Orica-GreenEdge confirmed that Christian Meier of Sussex, N.B., would ride in the 2014 Tour de France. Meier is a last-minute addition to the Austrailian team’s squad. He replaces Michael Matthews who injured himself Tuesday on a training ride in preparation for Saturday’s Grand Depart from Leeds, U.K. He hurt the palm of his hand and required six stitches.

Following Matthews’s crash, Meier flew from Vancouver to Manchester, U.K., and joined his team on Thursday afternoon. Events happened so quickly that Meier is still getting used to his upcoming Tour de France debut. “It hasn’t really sunk in yet, it has been a little bit of a whirlwind 24 hours,” Meier said. “It not the way you want to start a Tour just because a guy is injured, but I have to say, as my first Tour I am extremely excited to start. It’s every bike rider’s dream to do the Tour de France one day and it’s unbelievable that it is happening.”

Meier and his fellow Canadian teammate on Orica, Svein Tuft, recently had a successful Canadian national championships. Tuft won the time trial event. (Meier didn’t compete in the TT. As he said on his blog, “When Svein is racing the TT, it quickly becomes a race for second place for the rest.”) Meier supported Tuft in the latter’s road race win.

For the Tour, both Tuft and Meier will ride mostly as domestiques. “My role is a support role for the stage winners, so typically for Gerro [Simon Gerrans] and those guys having a real crack,” said Meier. “Later on in the race, if there is an opportunity to find a breakaway in the race, you take those opportunities when you can, but mainly I will be playing a support role.”

Tuft made his Tour de France debut in 2013. Meier, who is 29 years old, is not Orica’s oldest Tour rookie this year. Mathew Hayman, 36, will be riding the Tour for the first time also.