Watch: Svein Tuft and Christian Meier bikepack in Andorra
The retired Canadian pros talk about their friendship and love of cycling
Photo by:
The Service Course & Tristan Cardew
Canadian Svein Tuft and Christian Meier have long history of friendship and cycling, explored in the Service Course and Matt Tomlinson’s short film Connection.
As a junior in 2005, Meier join Canadian Continental Team Symmetrics. He soon found himself living in team owner Kevin Cunningham’s back yard with teammate Tuft, fully embracing the simple life.
Affectionately known within the team as the trailer park boys, the cyclists trained and lived together. They went on to spend the majority of their professional careers racing together, both sign for Garmin-Slipstream/Transitions (now EF Pro Cycling) and joining forces once again at Orica GreenEDGE/BikeExchange (now Mitchelton–Scott).
Years later, both pros have now retired and gone their separate ways. Meier lives in Girona, heading the Service Course, while Tuft and his family recently returned to Canada. Despite their distance, the friends make still make time to go on cycling adventures together. In Connection, the two discuss their friendship forged on the bike against the backdrop of a bikepacking trip through the mountains of Andorra.
Connection
The film opens with panning drone shots of the mountains and the cyclists carrying their bikes up a steep hill.
The pair reminisce about the simpler days of their early cycling careers. “There was a part of our lives where we spent a lot of time together,” says Tuft. “There were a few years where we lived together we were spending most days together.”
“We look back at that time as such a fantastic time,” says Meier. “For us it was so simple, we knew exactly what we were doing is what we love.”
“When we left to go to the WorldTour life became more complicated.”
The two retired pros say they feel like feel like they’re beginning to return to that simplicity that they look so fondly upon, as they reflect on the shared aspects of cycling that they value.
Though they don’t see each other as frequently now, Meier says that when they do get back together it’s always like they were never apart.
