The 2014 season was a time of further development for still young Orica-GreenEDGE squad, with the likes of Simon Gerrans and his natural successor-to-be Michael Matthews living up to almost all expectations and youngsters Esteban Chaves, Yates brothers and Caleb Evan all stepping up. The passing year wasn’t equally propitious for another rider from Australian squad, Cameron Meyer, who admitted that last ten months were the hardest in his career as road cyclist and that he needs to find a spark he had while competing on the track.

The 2014 season was the least successful for Meyer since he has joined Orica-GreenEDGE in 2012, with stage victory at the Tour de Suisse and opening team time trial at the Giro d’Italia won with the Australian outfit being the only highlights worth noticing. Even though his performances in the middle pert of the year were disrupted by a stomach infection which pulled him out of the Italian Grand Tour, the 26-year old refuses to use it as an ultimate excuse.

Instead, Meyer claims that he needs to take a step backwards and re-think his preparations to find a spark and aggressiveness he had while dividing his time between track and road duties.  

"When I was doing the track I always had quite a bit of success, so that would start the season off really well and I'd probably continue on that roll when I went on to the road," Meyer said, according to The West Australian.

"Since doing my first couple of years now of just full road, this year has definitely been one of my hardest. This year definitely didn't go the way I wanted.

"Probably I need to go back to a couple of basics. I think I need to go and find that real spark I had when I did both track and road.

"For some reason I got more out of it, more out of myself when I was that real aggressive sort of rider. Now trying to fit into just the road scene, which isn't my norm, I've got to try and find that aggression and really hit the season hard like you do on the track.

"Track racing's really exciting, hard racing. You only get one go at it and it's only an hour race. On the road you're racing every day and it can sometimes become mundane and stale a little bit.

"I think it's about what you do after the races and in between before your next race, how you mentally refresh yourself and how you train and prepare yourself for that next race. If you overdo it, you just continue on a downward spiral to not being as motivated."

With the likes of Caleb Ewan and whole armada of young talents quickly progressing under the guidance of Matt White, the 26-year old will indeed need to improve on his results next year, as his current contract expires with the end of 2015.

In order to do so, Meyer intends to sit down with Orica-GreenEDGE officials and outline his schedule for 2015 season, in which he would like to participate in the Tour Down Under – the event he won in 2011, and the Tour de France.

"It (the Tour de France) is likely to have a teams time trial next year, which really favours me and favours the team," Meyer said.

"I'd like to put it into my calendar to have a chance at it.

"But I don't want to make that the centre of attention for the year. I've got to prove myself through the start of the year first."