West Australia's Cameron Meyer (Garmin-Cervelo) is the 2011 Santos Tour Down Under Champion at the end of six stages
West Australian Cameron Meyer (Garmin-Cervelo) is the 2011 Santos Tour Down Under Champion at the end of six stages and 762 kilometres of racing in the opening UCI World Tour event of the season.
The 23 year old Garmin-Cervelo professional clocked an overall winning time of 17:54:27 for the six stages over a total of 762.4kilometres to claim overall victory by a mere two seconds over 25 year old Tasmanian Matthew Goss (HTC-Highroad). Goss clawed back six seconds on Meyer in the final stage but it wasn't enough to overtake him.
Briton Ben Swift (Sky Procycling) sprinted home to claim his second stage win of the week, and in doing so scored a ten second bonus which moved him up to third overall, eight seconds behind Meyer.
"It hasn't sunk in quite yet," said Meyer who on the start line today had three riders within striking distance of taking his crown. "To race in front of tens of thousands of people all cheering my name, so many friends and family and supporters out there, was fantastic.
"(Today) our plans were to go out hard and aggressive to put the pressure on HTC-Highroad," said Meyer. "It looks like they had to use their men up quite a lot and maybe Goss didn't quite have the train (at the end).
"I can't thank my team enough, it was fantastic," he said. "It's my first pro win and my first tour win, a great way to start the year for the team."
Meyer was last year named the Australian Cyclist of the Year after he claimed three world and three Commonwealth Games gold medals on the track and won the elite time trial on the road at the Australian Championships. He successfully defended the time trial title earlier this month.
The sixth and final stage of the Tour Down Under saw riders contest a 20 lap Adelaide City Council Street Circuit. It drew 119,000 supporters cheering on their heroes and farewelling seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong who was riding in his last international cycling race.
In one of the most dramatic finishes in the event's 13 year history, tension was high in the final couple of kilometres as the likes of Germany's Andre Greipel and Queensland's Robbie McEwen (Radio Shack) jostled for position. The physical manoeuvring at top speed left reigning under 23 road race World Champion, Michael Matthews a little out of his depth.
"I just didn't have the experience that these guys have on the last lap of a big race like this," said Matthews. "Everyone was just pushing me everywhere, but I just didn't quite have the speed or the technique to get to the front.
"Being a little guy trying to sprint, it's a bit hard being pushed around by the big guys. I guess you've got to push them back and see how you go ... I just couldn't quite push them back today."
In the end though everyone was upstaged by a sensational Sky team effort that saw New Zealand's Greg Henderson lead team mate Swift to the front to win the stage.
Goss was third for a four second bonus but not enough to win the trophy.
"Two seconds off it. But (Mark) Renshaw was doing the perfect job, he has all week, I just went on the opposite side, I didn't want to take the risk of getting shut on the barrier again, it didn't work out unfortunately.
"I guess it's a little bit of a disappointment, but it's also not a bad result, the team rode awesome all week and they completely supported me. I can't thank those guys enough.
"We had a great race, and if it wasn't for a couple of mishaps, maybe it would be different but that's bike riding," said Goss. "It just didn't really work out this year, but I will come back next year, I have a few years left here."
The top four in the Cycle Instead Best Young Rider category (under 26) was a repeat of the general classification with Meyer taking the honours ahead of Goss, Swift and Matthews.
At just 23 years of age, Meyer also becomes the second youngest to win the event behind Michael Rogers who claimed the 2002 Tour when he was 22 years old.
Movistar won the Brilliant Blend teams classification, decided by the cumulative total of the times of the three best individual riders on each team. Vacansoleil-DCM was eight seconds back and AG2R La Mondiale ranked third at 25 seconds.
Goss took the Jayco Sprint category on 28 points ahead of Matthews (20pts) and Belgian Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) who ranked third, also with 20 points.
UniSA-Australia's Roberts was a clear winner in the Skoda King of Mountains classification on 60 points, almost double that of Ben Hermans (Radio Shack) (36pts) and Mitch Docker (UniSA-Australia) on 32 points.
For the third straight year Roberts also claimed the Tanya Denver Award for the highest placed South Australian with his tenth place overall, 28 seconds off Meyer's winning time.
Cycling Australia
The 23 year old Garmin-Cervelo professional clocked an overall winning time of 17:54:27 for the six stages over a total of 762.4kilometres to claim overall victory by a mere two seconds over 25 year old Tasmanian Matthew Goss (HTC-Highroad). Goss clawed back six seconds on Meyer in the final stage but it wasn't enough to overtake him.
Briton Ben Swift (Sky Procycling) sprinted home to claim his second stage win of the week, and in doing so scored a ten second bonus which moved him up to third overall, eight seconds behind Meyer.
"It hasn't sunk in quite yet," said Meyer who on the start line today had three riders within striking distance of taking his crown. "To race in front of tens of thousands of people all cheering my name, so many friends and family and supporters out there, was fantastic.
"(Today) our plans were to go out hard and aggressive to put the pressure on HTC-Highroad," said Meyer. "It looks like they had to use their men up quite a lot and maybe Goss didn't quite have the train (at the end).
"I can't thank my team enough, it was fantastic," he said. "It's my first pro win and my first tour win, a great way to start the year for the team."
Meyer was last year named the Australian Cyclist of the Year after he claimed three world and three Commonwealth Games gold medals on the track and won the elite time trial on the road at the Australian Championships. He successfully defended the time trial title earlier this month.
The sixth and final stage of the Tour Down Under saw riders contest a 20 lap Adelaide City Council Street Circuit. It drew 119,000 supporters cheering on their heroes and farewelling seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong who was riding in his last international cycling race.
In one of the most dramatic finishes in the event's 13 year history, tension was high in the final couple of kilometres as the likes of Germany's Andre Greipel and Queensland's Robbie McEwen (Radio Shack) jostled for position. The physical manoeuvring at top speed left reigning under 23 road race World Champion, Michael Matthews a little out of his depth.
"I just didn't have the experience that these guys have on the last lap of a big race like this," said Matthews. "Everyone was just pushing me everywhere, but I just didn't quite have the speed or the technique to get to the front.
"Being a little guy trying to sprint, it's a bit hard being pushed around by the big guys. I guess you've got to push them back and see how you go ... I just couldn't quite push them back today."
In the end though everyone was upstaged by a sensational Sky team effort that saw New Zealand's Greg Henderson lead team mate Swift to the front to win the stage.
Goss was third for a four second bonus but not enough to win the trophy.
"Two seconds off it. But (Mark) Renshaw was doing the perfect job, he has all week, I just went on the opposite side, I didn't want to take the risk of getting shut on the barrier again, it didn't work out unfortunately.
"I guess it's a little bit of a disappointment, but it's also not a bad result, the team rode awesome all week and they completely supported me. I can't thank those guys enough.
"We had a great race, and if it wasn't for a couple of mishaps, maybe it would be different but that's bike riding," said Goss. "It just didn't really work out this year, but I will come back next year, I have a few years left here."
The top four in the Cycle Instead Best Young Rider category (under 26) was a repeat of the general classification with Meyer taking the honours ahead of Goss, Swift and Matthews.
At just 23 years of age, Meyer also becomes the second youngest to win the event behind Michael Rogers who claimed the 2002 Tour when he was 22 years old.
Movistar won the Brilliant Blend teams classification, decided by the cumulative total of the times of the three best individual riders on each team. Vacansoleil-DCM was eight seconds back and AG2R La Mondiale ranked third at 25 seconds.
Goss took the Jayco Sprint category on 28 points ahead of Matthews (20pts) and Belgian Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM) who ranked third, also with 20 points.
UniSA-Australia's Roberts was a clear winner in the Skoda King of Mountains classification on 60 points, almost double that of Ben Hermans (Radio Shack) (36pts) and Mitch Docker (UniSA-Australia) on 32 points.
For the third straight year Roberts also claimed the Tanya Denver Award for the highest placed South Australian with his tenth place overall, 28 seconds off Meyer's winning time.
Cycling Australia
