Meier analyses the 2013 national races

Like most who attend the nationals, I had come to the event this year with the hope of taking home a jersey. I felt my chances where better than the previous year. With Svein missing because of his preparations for his Tour de France debut and the dissolution of SpiderTech in the fall, both the time trial and road race were going to be more wide open than they had been in a while. For the time trial, I knew who the riders to beat were as the usual suspects seemed to have good form. My biggest target was Hugo Houle. We had always been close in previous years. With a year of solid racing behind him, I felt he had continued to grow in depth.

I was the last to begin the TT run and Hugo was in front. This arrangement actually worked out quite well: I could take my own splits on the long, straight rolling roads as well as at the turns. My ride was going OK, but it was definitely not on a scorcher. Perhaps I had not yet recovered fully from my efforts at the Tour de Beauce. Regardless, I was making pretty good time on Hugo. However, I rode a bit too conservatively, in relative terms of riding a time trial, knowing that I was making good time on my main rival. Maybe that strategy cost me in the end; I lost by a small margin to a rider I had really not taken into consideration. In all honesty, I had no idea who Curtis Dearden was. Later, I learned that he had trained all year just for the time trial and had come to nationals for that specific event. I have to give him credit for his ride; he produced a great effort. I don’t think he will go overlooked any more!

After the disappointment of my fourth second-place finish in the elite TT, I focused on Saturday’s road race. The course might not have been as tough as 2012’s, but I decided I needed to go on the offensive. In previous years, both Svein and I had sort of gotten stuck behind, playing catch up as we were heavily marked and working most of the day. I also knew that without one big team to control the race, as SpiderTech had done last year, there would be some very aggressive racing. It would be very difficult to control things from the peloton.

As soon as we hit the first significant climb on the way out to the circuit, I went for it, taking a few good riders with me. The group grew to 12 riders by the time we had finished the first of 8 laps. The break was committed with everyone working well. I knew that if we continued to work with the same level of commitment, the group behind was really going to struggle to make up any time on us. With Rollin and Parisien missing the move, they were going to be the main instigators. While they are star riders, taking on a group of 12 is a tall task.

Once the break was firmly established, I had to evaluate the group and how I could try to win. We had Ryan Anderson and Zach Bell, both strong sprinters, with whom I did not want to end up at the line. The rest were all riding strongly, but I thought I had a chance to get rid of some later in the race if it came down to it. The run from the eight-lap circuit back to the finish trended downhill, with the only real climb coming shortly after the circuit with some 30 km to go. It was there that I tried to get rid of the fast guys. I ended up on my own. Although I would have preferred to have one guy with me to share the load, I wasn’t going to wait and have Zach ride back onto the group. Behind, things regrouped and, to my surprise, the riders started to work together, catching me with about 6 km to go. What surprised me the most is that the other five guys worked with Zach, who was by far the strongest sprinter in the breakaway. From there, the outcome of the race was going to be a sprint, which Zach won quite handily. I was a bit frustrated by what I thought were strange tactics. But in the end, I rode the race I think I needed to try and get the win. It was a great day of exciting racing and Zach played a very smart race.

Now I am taking a little break to recover from the first part of the season before I start my build up to what should be a solid second part. More on that soon. I have to get packing for a little holiday away.

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