Interview with Christian Meier of Orica-GreenEdge at the 2014 Tour de France

Before sign-in at Stage 18 of the 2014 Tour de France, Christian Meier shared his thoughts on his rookie outing at la Grande Boucle. Meier was called up off the reserve list two days prior to the start of the race, replacing an injured Michael Matthews. In the span of 48 hours, Christian went from being a spectator at home in British Columbia to wearing race bib number 187 on the start line of the 101st edition of   the Tour.

“It all happened really quick. Emotions are definitely, you know, they tend to be a little bit mixed because I  replaced a guy who is injured, so that is not always nice. You realize how big a race the Tour de France is, and to have a teammate missing because he crashed out training, you have to feel for them as well,” Meier said.

Meier’s participation in this year’s Tour de France completes his participation in all three of cycling’s Grand Tours: Giro d’Italia, Vuelta a España and le Tour. Jump to the video to hear Meier speak about his hurried travels from Canada to the U.K. for the Tour start, his thoughts on the first couple of weeks of racing in France and his view on the unique characteristics of the each Grand Tour.