Meyer Moves Second in Tour of Japan

WAIS cyclist and Olympic hopeful Cameron Meyer has finished second in the second stage of the Tour of Japan.

Riding for SouthAustralia.com-AIS, Meyer and his teammate Wesley Sulzberger took out the top two positions after some clever team riding allowed the pair to attack the 146.2km second stage, with Sulzberger finishing first in a time of 2hr54min31sec. Meyer was just one second behind in second, with the pair ranked first and second overall.

Team Director Brian Stephens was delighted by the teams start to the tour, with both days culminating in SouthAustralia.com-AIS wins.

“At the moment we can’t do anything wrong,” said Brian Stephens.

“The tactic today was to have someone in everything because, although we started the stage with Zak (Dempster) leading, the rest of this Tour is a bit too hilly for him so we needed more options.”

Stage winner Sulzberger explained how he and Meyer exploited a two on one advantage, as the pair worked together to out manoeuvre Japanese rider, Kazuo Inoue.

“Obviously we wanted to keep working in the break to hold off the peloton who were chasing pretty hard behind our group,” said Sulzberger. “In the last couple of laps Cam (Meyer) and I both knew attacks would come on finishing climb so we marked riders, stayed up the front and stayed alert.

“Cam slipped off the front on the final lap when the Japanese guy counter attacked I got on his wheel,” explained Sulzberger. “I looked back and the rest of our group wasn’t chasing so I told Cam on the radio to keep going.”

Holding a two against one advantage over Inoue Meyer launched the first attack.

“Cam went down the left and the Japanese guy (Inoue) had nothing left in the tank to counter so then I went down the right and we were away,” said Sulzberger.

Sulzberger and Meyer now sit first and second overall but Sulzberger says they can deal with the pressure.

“We might have won the first two stages but it’s like any other race now and we have to plan our strategy,” he said. “We’ll try our hardest and not get too much of a big head.”

The Tour of Japan is a seven stage 890km event, culminating in Hibaya City next Sunday.