The last climb of the day on Stage 3, the category one Hasliberg may have brought an end to Cameron Meyer's time in the yellow jersey at the Tour de Suisse, but the Orica GreenEdge rider is hopeful of retaining a position in the top 10 by the end of the race.
"Don't think I have done 205km harder or faster before," he said via his twitter feed on Monday. "Can't thank my @Orica_GreenEDGE team mates enough. Simply awesome. I aim for top ten."
Meyer held just a three second buffer heading into Monday's third stage and teammate Michael Albasini rode into the day's break to take some of the pressure off the Australian. Albasini was eventually the last man out front by the time the race hit the Hasliberg.
"He did a fantastic job riding at the front of the race which forced other teams to do the work," said sports director Lorenzo Lapage of the Swiss rider. "The rest of the boys did an excellent good job of looking after Cam as they long as they could in the bunch."
Once caught, Albasini found Meyer in a bid to limit losses and the former Tour Down Under winner eventually finished 1:47 back on stage winner Peter Sagan (Cannondale). Albasini fell back 38 seconds in arrears. Meyer is 11th on the general classification, 1:42 back from new yellow jersey Mathias Frank (BMC).
Over the last six weeks, Meyer has produced a string of encouraging results following a slower-than-hoped start to the season. Sixth at the Tour of Turkey, fifth at the Tour of California – Meyer is hoping to keep the momentum going.
"The team will continue to look out for Cam's GC ambitions," explained Lapage. "The overall will be decided in the final days of the tour – the penultimate day and the time trial. We expect these will be good days for Cam to move back up in the GC. Until then the next few days will be open for the opportunists. Here we might expect to see some of our fast guys go for their own goals."
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Tuesday's fourth stage will be an opportunity for Matt Goss who is likely to go head-to-head with in-form compatriot Heinrich Haussler (IAM Cycling) and Sagan at the finish in Buochs.
