Meyer Claims Tour of Japan

WAIS cyclist Cameron Meyer has taken out the Tour of Japan heading his SouthAustralia.com-AIS outfit that also claimed victory in the teams classification.

Meyer entered the last day with a one second advantage over fellow Australian Jai Crawford (Marco Polo) and in treacherous conditions prevailed in the final stage, a flat 148.9km circuit race in Tokyo.

“It feels really good to win because I haven’t won a Tour overall for a while so good to show some form and get the result,” said Meyer.

Meyer’s last tour success had come in the Tour of Tasmania in 2007 and comes on the back of some very successful performances on the European circuit.

“Today was a bit nerve wracking mainly because it was pouring rain and we only had one second up our sleeves so we had to be alert the whole day,” said Meyer. “But we were still confident because we’ve been riding really well as a team and we backed me as being faster than Jai in the sprint.”

The team had hoped a break would go away early to neutralise the intermediate sprints but aggressive racing early saw the main bunch contest the first intermediate sprint at around the 50km mark of the stage.

“We had to line up for the first sprint with Marco Polo working for Jai and my guys lead me out,” said Meyer who edged Crawford out for third place and a one second bonus.

After the sprint a breakaway group of 14 riders formed at the front including Meyer’s team mate and Stage 1 winner Zakkari Dempster.

“Luckily that break went clear and we had Zak in it so that took the pressure off us a little bit,” said Meyer. Wes Sulzberger and Simon Clarke then did the job of controlling the bunch to safeguard Meyer’s position.

The group stayed away until the end where Poland’s Marcin Gebka won the stage with Dempster crossing the line in fourth place.

The main bunch crossed 46 seconds later with Meyer safely tucked in 33rd place on Crawford’s wheel.

Meanwhile, Meyer’s younger brother Travis Meyer claimed second position in the third stage of the Ronde de l’Isard in France. Travis Meyer has also been in great recent form after taking out the Tour of Berlin earlier this month.