You were expecting yet another sprint at the Santos Tour Down Under 2011? You were probably not the only one! This wasn't however the case since the early breakaway managed to continue until the finish and Cameron Meyer (Garmin-Cervélo) won the race.

With his 23 years, the Australian rider becomes the 4th (out of 4) stage winner of the Santos Tour Down Under 2011 under 25 years (after Matt Goss (24), Ben Swift (23) and Michael Matthews (20)).

The summary of the 4th stage of the 2011 Santos Tour Down Under: Norwood > Strathalbyn

An undulated stage today between Norwood and Strathalbyn (with the climb of Checker Hill at 13.3%) saw right from the start a very high number of attacks but only the one by Cameron Meyer (Garmin-Cervélo), Laurens ten Dam ( Rabobank), Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale), Rob Ruijgh and Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team) at 33 kilometers from the start turned out possitively.
About ten kilometers further, these 5 riders got company from Matthew Wilson (Garmin-Cervélo) and their gap went up to 2'20".

At about sixty kilometers from the finish the number of riders in the breakaway went back to 5 anyway, because Blel Kadri couldn't follow anymore and drops back down to the peloton.

Even though we saw the HTC-Highroad and Omega Lotto-Pharma teams ahead of the peloton controlling the gap, it was still one minute in the last 10 kilometers, when Rob Ruijgh dropped and left his team mate alone in this breakaway.

As a big surprise, the breakaway could keep up until the finish: Cameron Meyer and Thomas de Gendt finished the stage a few seconds ahead of their mates for the day and the Australian rider won it from the Belgian rider of Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team. Thanks to the bonus seconds he also took the ochre leader's jersey!

Cameron Meyer's comments after his victory in the 4th stage

After the finish in Strathalbyn, Cameron Meyer (Garmin-Cervélo), the stage winner and new leader of the Santos Tour Down Under 2011 declared: It's a great feeling to kick off the season with my first pro win and my first RR win - and to do it on front of the home crowd is great.

We kept the time gap in check and then put the gas down. If it was going to come back the plan was to lead Tyler out.

Matt knew I had the better legs and he fully committed himself to keep us away. He sat on the front for the last 1.5 km and led me out until 400 meters to go. It was a sprint for myself then and I was able to come over the top.

Concerning his chances to win the Santos Tour Down Under 2011 of which he's the new leader, he added: It's going to be hard to keep the jersey but we are going to give it a red hot go. Tomorrow is one of the longest stages so maybe let a break go and take the time bonuses and let the sprinters' teams bring it back. The time bonuses over the next two days will make it hard for sure.

The video of the 4th stage

The 2011 Santos Tour Down Under classifications after the 4th stage

The classification of the 4th stage Norwood > Strathalbyn

Here's the top 10 of the stage classification:

1/ Cameron Meyer (Garmin-Cervelo) - 2h57'55"
2/ Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team)
3/ Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank) - +0'03"
4/ Matthew Wilson (Garmin-Cervelo) - +0'10"
5/ Matthew Goss (HTC-Highroad) - +0'24"
6/ José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team)
7/ Ben Swift (Team Sky)
8/ Jurgen Roelandts (Omega Pharma-Lotto)
9/ Nikolay Trusov (Katusha Team)
10/ Romain Feillu (Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team)

The overall classification of the 2011 Santos Tour Down Under after the 4th stage

The top 10 of the overall classification:

1/ Cameron Meyer (Garmin-Cervelo) - 12h54'30"
2/ Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank) - +0'10"
3/ Matthew Goss (HTC-Highroad) - +0'12"
4/ Robbie McEwen (Team Radioshack) - +0'15"
5/ André Greipel (Omega Pharma-Lotto) - +0'16"
6/ Michael Matthews (Rabobank) - +0'18"
7/ Ben Swift (Team Sky)
8/ Blel Kadri (AG2R La Mondiale) - +0'26"
9/ Francisco Ventoso (Movistar Team) - +0'27"
10/ Allan Davis (Astana) - +0'28"

>> Check out the full classifications of the 2011 Santos Tour Down Under

The photos in this article are © Santos Tour Down Under / John Veage and used with permission; the illustration picture of this article is © www.velowire.com / Thomas Vergouwen.

door Thomas Vergouwen
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this publication is published in: Tour Down Under | Tour Down Under 2011

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