Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge) reached his goal of an overall top 10 finish in the Tour de Suisse as his 15th place in yesterday's time trial was enough to defend his position among the 10 best riders in the race. The stage was a highly unusual one and so the riders had to use alternative methods, Meyer even getting support from a professional bobsledder.

When Cameron Meyer sat down with his coach to plan the 2013 season, they agreed on the Tour de Suisse as a major target, the ambition being a top 10 finish. After overall top 10 performances in the Tour of Turkey and the Tour of California, the Australian was highly confident that he would finally be among the best riders in a WorldTour race.

Yesterday, Meyer finished 15th in the final time trial and that performance was enough for him to defend his 10th place on GC. Hence, it was mission accomplished for the former track world champion who is now fully concentrated on his road career.

“My goal before the start of the tour was to achieve a top ten finish, and I’ve accomplished that,” he said. “I started today in tenth overall, and my aim was to hold that same position. I’m very happy.”

With the race being a major target, Meyer had done his homework be doing a recon of many of the key stages. He had also taken a closer look at yesterday's unusual stage which consisted of 16,5km of dead-flat roads followed by the 10,3km climb to the tough of the 9% Flumserberg climb.

Like most of his rivals, he chose to make a bike change at the bottom of the climb and even made use of an alternative strategy to get back up to speed.

“I had done a recon of the course three our four weeks ago when I came to Switzerland with my coach,” he explained. “The time trial started off with 17 kilometres of flat and then headed up a mountain for ten kilometres. This is very different than a normal time trial. We went in with the plan to do a bike change. I rode a time trial bike for the first part of the course and then switched to a road bike at the bottom of the climb.”

“We also had a special guest to help with the bike change,” he continued. “(Teammate, ed.) Michael Albasini has a friend that is a professional bobsledder. He rode in the car with us, and after we switched bikes, he ran with me to push me uphill. It was pretty awesome to have him help out the team.”

Meyer had taken the yellow jersey with a win in the stage 1 time trial but fell out of the top 10 when he struggled on the Hasliberg in stage 3. A splendid performance in Friday's queen stage moved him back into the top 10 and he points to his ride over the mighty Albulapass as his highlight of the race.

“My personal highlight was the stage seven summit finish,”he said. “It was a long day in the saddle at 205 kilometres with a finish in La Punt after the Albula Pass. I was fifth on the stage, and I think that set me up for the overall. I moved up to eighth over the stage, and that gain allowed me to stay in the top ten before today’s stage and finish in top ten after the time trial.”

Meyer is a newcomer to the world of stage racing at the top level, having only started to target GCs last year. At the Swiss event, he was surrounded by some veteran teammates which all contributed to his good result.

“We worked really well together as a team this week,” he said. “I learned a lot from riding with my more experienced teammates. This is the first tour I’ve ridden with Gossy [Matt Goss], Stuey [Stuart O’Grady] and [Daryl] Impey. They taught me a lot about being in the right position at the right time and the different ways I can conserve my energy, which proved important over the nine days of racing. We achieved a lot, and I think it’s safe to say everyone is looking good ahead of the Tour de France.”

Meyer will not be a part of the Orica-GreenEdge team for the Tour de France, the Australian instead targeting races later in the season.