Christian Meier on leaving the WorldTour for ultrarunning

In 2016, Christian Meier made an unusual decision: at the age of 31, he walked away from a successful WorldTour career a year before his contract was due to end to focus on the coffee shop he and his wife had just opened in Girona, Spain. That year, they opened two more businesses. After dabbling in off-road racing for a couple of years, he made a second unconventional transition. He started competing in trail running events and found so much fulfillment in it that his focus began to gravitate toward professional sports again. Last year, he won TDS, a 150-kilometer trail race in Chamonix and one of the most iconic ultra races in the world. This year, he has his sights set on the biggest off-road running event of them all — Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB).

Payson sat down with Christian to discuss his journey from Canada to Girona before the town became known as a cycling haven. They delve into Christian's decision to leave the WorldTour early, his entrepreneurial ventures, and that time he started a breakaway at Unbound. He also talks about why he switched from cycling to running, and how the current state of ultrarunning mirrors where gravel was a few years ago. 

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