July 23, 2008 (Vancouver, BC) — Less than three weeks ago Sussex, New Brunswick’s Christian Meier won the 2008 Canadian Road Championships in Saint Georges, Quebec. He was the first rider from Atlantic Canada to ever win the Canadian road championships – and he did it on the heels of winning the Under 23 Championship in 2007. Now Meier has more good news as he has signed on to be a ‘s tagiaire’ with the leading US team, Garmin-Chipotle presented by H3O, for the remainder of 2008. Team Garmin-Chipotle is currently riding at the Tour de France. Canada’s Ryder Hesjedal from BC also rides for Team Garmin-Chipotle – ed.

When Meier joins the team in early August he will be competing in the highest echelons of the sport. “Riding pro in Europe is every biker’s dream,” said Meier, “I can’t wait. Garmin has a fantastic program. They’re doing everything right and culturally it will be a good fit,” adds Meier. Team Garmin-Chipotle is an American team with North American style management and a strong commitment to clean sport.

Meier is no stranger to Europe however, last year at the Road World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany he was Canada’s strongest under 23 (Espoir) rider featuring in several pivotal attacks in the race’s closing kilometers before finishing in the lead group of riders. In April’s Under 23 World Cup race in Belgium – the classic Liege Bastogne Liege – Meier finished 7th. Those results, coupled with a slew of strong performances over Meier’s last three seasons racing with his current Symmetrics Cycling Team, have made more than one European-based team director take note of the young Canadian.

Last October, Meier finished second overall in the five-day Vuelta Chihuahua International race in Mexico. Team Garmin – then team Slipstream Chipotle – was at that race with its Danish Director Johnny Weltz. Meier actually finished the mountainous Chihuahua tour tied for overall time with Spain’s Francisco Mancebo. But Mancebo edged Meier for the win on stage points. It is extremely rare in professional cycling for races to be decided this way – normally after a week of hard racing, race times will separate competitors. Mancebo formerly finished fourth in the Tour de France – professional cycling’s marquee event. Chihuahua featured seven European team entries including Saunier-Duval, a pro tour team. When Weltz saw Meier’s grinta in Mexico, he knew the young man had what it takes to make it in the climbing-intensive races of Europe’s professional racing circuit.

A ‘s tagiaire’ position is like a try-out. Meier has no guarantees he’ll be riding with Team Garmin-Chipotle in 2009. But it’s an important first step. The team will be looking for Meier to ride well, integrate with his team mates and demonstrate he has the capacity to be a solid team player. Meier is scheduled to race the tours of Limousin and Poitou-Charentes in France before returning to North America for September’s Tour of Missouri. Meier’s season is set to end with the prestigious classic Giro di Lombardia in Italy. As the newly crowned 2008 National Road Champion Meier will wear a special jersey with a maple leaf design. This will be the first time since 1997 that the Canadian Road Champion’s jersey has seen action at a pro level in Europe.

“This is a fantastic validation of our program,” said Kevin Field, Meier’s director on the Symmetrics team. “It’s our goal to develop Canadian cycling by building our team and its individual talents. Ideally we build our team on the same trajectory as our athletes, if we can’t do that, we are very proud to see them move on to the highest levels of the sport.”

The Symmetrics Cycling Team has had tremendous success in the past three seasons. Last year the team won the UCI Americas Continental Tour – for professional teams competing in North and South America. Team Garmin-Chipotle regularly competes on the Europe Tour and Pro Tour, higher rated competitions in cycling’s traditional hot-spots of western Europe. With their European focus and recent multimillion dollar signing of Garmin as title sponsor, Team Garmin-Chipotle is on the trajectory Meier needs in his pursuit of cycling success.

“It is our long-term goal to be where Garmin is right now,” adds Field, “Realistically we’re not there yet. It’s all still in the works but it takes some time and sponsor relationships that we haven’t established yet. It’s definitely positive for us as we can leverage this with our partners to show we have credibility when we say our goal is to develop athletes and a program at that top level.”

About Team Garmin-Chipotle
To find out more about Team Garmin-Chipotle visit www.slipstreamsports.com

About the Symmetrics Cycling Team
To find out more about Team Symmetrics visit www.symmetricscycling.com

More About Christian Meier
Follow Christian from his personal website: www.bikingbros.com