Meyer’s gamble on road pays off

Aussie riders in golden double

CYCLING: Cameron Meyer’s comeback to top-level road cycling is complete after his stunning ride to win gold in the time trial, which he decided to enter only at the last minute.

A five-time world champion in the points race on the track, Meyer was initially targeting only that event but decided a week ago to ride the time trial as well on coach Tim Decker’s recommendation.

After surprisingly missing the medals in the points race when heavily marked on Sunday night, Meyer refocused and stormed to gold yesterday on the road at Currumbin.

Set a time of 48mins 43secs for victory, Meyer crushed the field that had started before him – beating England’s Harry Tanfield and New Zealander Hamish Bond by 30 seconds.

The 30-year-old West Australian covered the 38.5km course, which started and finished in Currumbin, in 48:13.

Teammate Callum Scotson overcame a rear wheel change to finish fourth in 49:35.

Katrin Garfoot then capped off a magnificent day for the Australian team by taking out the women’s event.

The 32-year-old was last out of the gates but quickest through the 25.5km course.

Garfoot stopped the clock at 35 minutes 08.09 seconds to beat New Zealand’s defending Commonwealth champion Linda Villumsen by 54.92 seconds.

The golden double was an unexpected bonus for the Australians after Meyer was a late entrant.

“It was only two weeks ago that we decided (to race the time trial),” he said.

“It was Tim Decker who knew I had good aerobic form and I was concentrating on the points race, which is a 45-minute effort and today is roughly the same.

“And he said, ‘Cam, I reckon you could have a crack in the time trial’, and I said ‘Why not? Let’s have a go’. We scrambled a bike together, did my measurements and I had nothing to lose and somehow it paid off.”

It was Meyer’s fourth Commonwealth Games gold medal – he won three on the track in Delhi in 2010 – and vindicated his decision to return to road cycling’s World Tour this year.

A nine-time world champion on the track, on the road he won The Tour Down Under in 2011 and the Herald Sun Tour in 2015 before walking away from pro cycling in 2016 citing a lack of motivation.

Having returned to the track later that year, it remains his focus heading towards the Tokyo Olympics.

“I concentrated on my professional road scene, then took a break and the last year and a half I’ve been concentrating on getting back into the track and Tokyo Olympics is a main focus,” Meyer said.