Cameron Meyer posted the fastest time on the opening stage time trial at the Tour de Suisse yesterday. Ten seconds quicker than Niki Terpstra (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) in second, Meyer covered the 8.1 kilometre course in 9’40. The Western Australian will thus wear yellow during the first road stage on Sunday.

“Today went really well,” said Meyer, following his media obligations and doping control. “I’m excited and a bit surprised with the result. I started off with the earlier group of riders, and the wind was definitely in my favour. Still, my legs were good.”

While the weather may have worked to Meyer’s advantage, his team had studied the forecast and deliberately started him earlier in the day.

“Any day there is a first stage time trial, the team can choose in which order it wants to race its riders,” explained Sport Director Laurenzo Lapage. “We knew there was a big chance of rain in the afternoon, so we purposefully put Cam early.

Although the rain didn’t fall until after the final finisher, the winds picked up and shifted for the second half of the field.

“Most teams put their GC guys in the last wave as a general rule,” said Lapage. “We did something different today and it paid dividends. It was a little bit of luck and some good planning combined with a super, super ride.”

Meyer has long talked up the Tour de Suisse as a major objective for his season. He finished in the top ten overall at Tour of Turkey in late April and repeated the feat at the Amgen Tour of California in May.

“Cam has targeted this race a long way out,” Lapage said. “He’s progressed very well since his saddle sore surgery at the beginning of the year. The course suits his characteristics with another time trial mixed amongst the hilly stages. We’re expecting a big ride from him.”

“I’m very happy with my ride,” added Meyer. “To be leading a WorldTour race with a lot of riders getting ready for the Tour de France is better than I could have dreamt.”

The team will defend the yellow jersey today on the first road stage. There is no easing into the road racing with a summit finish on stage two.

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” Meyer said. “It will be hard with the final up to Crans Montana, but we have a good team. I’m confident we can represent the jersey well.”