Almost seven years after asserting his retirement from professional biking, Canada’s Christian Meier has topped the rostrum at a difficult European 50K path race—an occasion he entered on a whim, as a coaching run.
Meier, who hails from Sussex, N.B., and is now based mostly in Spain (he’s a enterprise proprietor in Girona), positioned first out of greater than 600 runners on the 50K path race of the Path 100 Andorra by UTMB on Saturday, ending the course in 5:42:25. The course, which begins and ends within the village of Ordino within the small landlocked nation of Andorra between France and Spain, is listed as a medium-high problem race on the occasion’s web site. The course options 3,600 metres of elevation achieve by means of the Pyrenees mountains.
Posting about his victory on Instagram, the 38-year-old expressed shock and gratitude following the race. “Typically issues occur once you least count on them, particularly successful your first operating race. I signed as much as the @trail100andorra 50k just some days earlier than so the bib of an injured mate wouldn’t go to waste, it could be an incredible day of coaching,” he wrote.
However he famous he may really feel his “day of coaching” on the course flip into one thing extra outstanding shortly after setting out from the beginning line. “I set out a pacing, vitamin and hydration technique. I ran my race, feeling early on that it might be my day but it surely was up (to) me to make it occur. I saved anticipating somebody to catch me however on the identical time felt like I used to be shifting properly, and solely within the final couple Ks after I had a very good line of sight behind did I really feel I may begin to savour the second a bit,” he wrote. “What a day, what an expertise, once you really feel you nailed it and also you seize that tape on the end line.”
Though Meier had a notable profession as a bike owner—he competed within the 2014 Tour de France as a member of the Orica squad—his win within the mountains Saturday was no fluke. Meier has been making a reputation for himself within the trail-running scene over the previous a number of years.
Earlier this month he represented Canada within the 85-km males’s lengthy path occasion on the World Mountain and Path Operating Championships in Innsbruck-Stubai, Austria. Inserting 53rd amongst 122 finishers at Worlds, Meier wrote that “whereas it appears it ended poorly … I take so many positives from this race. I felt perhaps my strongest but as a runner. I’ve belief in my course of.”
His victory in Andorra appears to have validated that belief.
