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Unfinished business for Christian Meier at the 2014 Canadian championships

January 14, 2014
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Canada’s top road cyclists are starting to gear up for the fast approaching season. Now is the time they decide what went right and what went wrong in 2013, and set goals for events in 2014. Christian Meier, one of Canada’s riders in the WorldTour, takes stock of the previous year and looks ahead to the new one.

The disappointment

The Orica-GreenEdge rider came to the 2013 national road championships, in Saint-Georges, Que., as a heavy favorite for victory in both the time trial and road race. He showed great form at the Tour de Beauce (finishing third overall) a week before the start of nationals, had completed a strong spring that included a solid Giro d’ Italia, and was hungry for success. However, the 2013 nationals didn’t work out the way he had hoped. Meier showed his intentions early in the road race splitting the field almost immediately and eventually launching his bid for victory with a solo attack 25 km from the finish line. Unfortunately for him, racing tactics conspired against him: he was reeled in by an elite group of chasers before the finish line and forced to settle for sixth place. In the time trial, he was again upset. Underdog Curtis Dearden won his first ever national title with 13 seconds over Meier. The nationals week was a big disappointment for the WorldTour rider.

The success

Despite Meier’s performance at nationals, he had a great season. During the weeklong Volta Ciclista a Catalunya he showed the consistency and tenacity he is noted for. Through well-timed attacks, he won the sprint jersey. He applied these same tactics at the Vuelta a España, in which he contributed a lot of work on the front of the peloton to set up teammate and sprinting ace Micheal Matthews to multiple stage victories. Meier takes pride in his work as a support rider. He wants to develop this role further in 2014.

The goals

Meier feels there is no room for New Year’s resolutions. He’s already a dedicated cyclists. “Anything worth changing shouldn’t depend or wait for a certain day,” he says. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have goals for the 2014 season. Meier is focused on improving his ability to support his leaders. He wants to ride deeper into the final stretches of major one-day races such as the Ardennes Classics (Amstel Gold, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège) and offer another level of support to his team leaders. Meier hopes to be able to position teammates in key points of a race, chase down late race attacks and supply much needed water and food. Another major objective for Meier is to further improve his climbing skills as Orica-GreenEdge starts to develop its GC goals. In essence, Meier is looking for additional ways he can contribute to the team.

Personal aspirations in 2014? Winning a race in 2014, “would be cool.” After his frustrated ride in 2013, national at Lac-Mégantic, Que., in 2014 is the most likely target.

 

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