Australian in commanding positions as overall race leader
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Meyer on the podium in the leaders jersey(Image credit: Mark Gunter)
Cameron Meyer takes it easily(Image credit: Mark Gunter)
Bendigo continued to be a happy hunting ground for Cam Meyer expect this time it was on the road rather then the track. The 27-year-old won stage one of the Jayco Herald Sun Tour ahead of Joe Cooper (Avanti) to record his fifth professional win and the first of the season for his Australian WorldTour Orica-GreenEdge team.
"I love Bendigo. I've been here for the Bendigo madison plenty of times and I knew the pressure was on us to get a results as we've had heaps of seconds. The team rode fantastic as well," Meyer said after his win.
"I can do that big five-ten kilometre effort as I have a bit of time trial in me and it was perfect getting away with Joe Cooper but Simon was probably the one to take on Bevin and you could see Bevin was pretty quick at the finish. It worked out perfect for us in that scenario," he said of the finale.
It was teammate Clarke winning the stage into Bendigo last year that set up his overall win and Meyer, having emulated one part of that winning plan, is keen on finishing the job come Sunday up Arthurs Seat.
"It's a hard week now," he said of defending yellow. "Simon Clarke did it last year and we've love to do it again. It's going to be a hard bike race and it's still very close in the overall standings. I went and checked out Arthurs Seat, I know that's a hard hill, but I am looking forward to the challenge."
Besides Caleb Ewans' three Bay Crits wins, GreenEdge had posted several second places but were yet to open its 2015 account on the professional circuit and Meyer explained the team was starting to feel the pressure.
"It's not said from the team but we know ourselves," he said of the pressure to win. "Last year we had so many wins and Simon Gerrans put our name up on the board so many times. We had Simon Clarke win here … besides the Bay Crits, we've had so many seconds [last month] and we were just looking for that elusive win. I think it will just start the ball rolling now and hopefully we are going to have a good week."
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With GreenEdge and Avanti occupying the top four places on GC and seven out of the top 21 positions, Meyer agreed that the race is likely to be a battle between the two teams.
"Probably, our two teams were the first four riders and the way we [GreenEdge] were all up there in the prologue yesterday so we were all up there in the standings," he said. "They are a strong team, one of the strongest in the NRS, and the those two New Zealand boys showed at the nationals recently they are up for the challenge this week so I think it will be a race between our two teams."
