It was a tale of last year’s stage winners for ORICA-GreenEDGE on stage two of the Tour de Suisse.
Australian Cameron Meyer, the 2015 Jayco Herald Sun Tour champion, spent the day up the road in a breakaway whilst Colombian Esteban Chaves, an up-and-coming general classification rider, finished as the top placed rider in 17th position for the Australian outfit.
Set with the task of making the first breakaway of the 2015 Tour, Meyer rode himself into a move of four to earn himself the most aggressive rider of the stage.
“There was a lot of attacks right from the start and Simon Clarke and Cam were bouncing along with them to try and make sure we had someone in the move,” sport director Neil Stephens said.
“Cam did a good job to make the break but unfortunately the bunch didn’t really give them much room to move so they didn’t get any more than three minutes at any stage.”
The 27-year-old’s day in front came to an end when the race drew back together in the final 15km ahead of the last climb. From there, it was about Chaves.
“Over the climb, there was a group of nine in the front, another group of ten with Esteban in it at 20seconds and then another 20seconds back to Michael Albasini’s group,” Stephens said.
“Unfortunately that’s the way it stayed until the finish but once Esteban was in that group we knew it was over for the stage win so we were content to finish within that group, which would give us a bit of a lift up on the general classification.
“There were a couple of GC riders that got a few seconds on him, but we also gained a few on a lot of other guys.
“He got through tired, he was tired and it hurt but he didn’t really have to go too deep so I think at the moment things are going to plan.”
Tomorrow’s third stage features an HC category climb early in proceedings before a long run down to the finale that features two smaller ascents.
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