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Meyer going on tour |
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Written by Dale Woodard
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Thursday, May 28 2009, 10:30 PM |
Steven Meyer is going on tour this summer.
And while the 19-year-old mountain biker will deal with the odd rock here or there, there will be ample rolling.
Life on the road starts in a little over a week as Meyer kicks off his summer run June 7 in Kamloops on the Alberta and B.C. Cup tour.
“There are two separate cups you can race,” said Meyer. “There’s the Alberta Cup and the B.C Cup. Both of them have races throughout the province and the summer all over the country. There’s also nationals in Quebec that we’ll race in July.”
It’s an impressive schedule for someone who first got on a mountain bike six years ago as a 13-year-old.
“I just rode every day with a few buddies,” said Meyer. “I just started racing a couple years ago. I’ve been riding for six years, so for four years I riding with my friends and seeing what I like and what I don’t like.”
Once he started racing, the competitive side of the sport had Meyers hooked.
“I raced a couple years ago, just for fun and testing it out,” he said. “Last year I worked at the the Fernie Alpine resort building trails, so I wasn’t able to race too much, but I did a few local races there.”
Those few races were enough to whet Meyers appetite to make mountain bike racing his summer day job this year.
“This is the first year I’m really taking the summer and doing the whole thing,” he said. “The goal to have fun the whole time. It’s just going out there and seeing if I can compete with the big boys.”
That starts in Kamloops and continues on throughout the summer with stops in Victoria, Calgary, Panorama, Golden over the course of the summer before heading to Quebec for Nationals. There’s no qualifier to take part in the tour.
“Anybody can get on a bike and sign up for a race. There are kids there that have been riding for a year and kids that have been riding for 20 years. There are dads that race.”
Following provincials in Blairmore Aug. 2, the riders gear up for the Kokanee Crankworx race in Whistler Aug. 8-16.
“There’s a big competition at the end of the year, it’s not part of either of the Cups,” said Meyer of the eight-day event. “Nobody has a race during that time because they know everybody is going to be in Whistler.”
However, there is some racing to be done before the big year-end race as Meyer acclimatizes himself to life on the tour trail.
That means a different course at each stop.
“Every city is a new trail to ride down,” said Meyer. “Some are 1.4 km and some are a 15-minute long course.”
“You get a few days to practise and start to know the rocks and roots and where they are. It’s your shifting points throughout the section. It’s pretty tough sometimes, but you get used to it.”
As he gets set to hit the competitive trail this summer, Meyers has done his part to make sure he’s ready to tackle the rigours of the road.
“I get up in the morning and go ride and run the coulees,” he said. “I take an afternoon breather and then usually one of my buddies is off of school or work by then and I go train again the evening.”
Having the support of his mother, Anne Lanz, and his father, Rick, has also helped.
“It’s huge,” said Meyer. “To be able to come home and your mom has something cooked up for you after you been riding and you’re hungry and thirsty. My dad travels with me all the time and my sister (Kelly-Anne Eaglebear) comes to a few races now and again.”
When he’s at home, Meyer and his fellow mountain bikers are trying to carve out a niche of their own.
“We have the dirt trail park the city is starting to put in,” said Meyer. “We have a few trails and my buddies and I go down to the coulees and build some trails. It would be nice if we had trails we could ride. But it’s up to the city (with) what they give us and what they don’t.
“What we’ve got is pretty good. We get to ride every hiking trail and there are so many trails.”
Of course, that also means watching out for pedestrians.
“We have to keep our eyes open for them,” said Meyer. “Other than that, when we’re building trails sometimes we’ll get bugged by certain people saying we shouldn’t do it. But we try to pick our spots.”
He plans on taking his passion further, literally and geographically speaking.
“I’ve love to take my bike around the world,” said Meyer. “We’ll see how this summer goes. If I do well I’ll keep going. But I’ll be riding my bike as long as I live, that’s for sure.”
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