STRATHALBYN – Cameron Meyer grabbed the overall leader’s jersey from fellow Australian Matthew Goss after winning the fourth stage of the Tour Down Under on Friday. Meyer, riding for the Garmin-Cervelo team, held off the sprinters and finished ahead of his breakaway companions, Vacansoleil’s Thomas de Gendt and Laurens Ten Dam of Rabobank, after a 124-km ride from Norwood to Strathalbyn, near Adelaide. The main peloton arrived 24 seconds after the winner, meaning Meyer will go into stage five with a 10-second advantage over Ten Dam. Goss dropped to third in the overall standings, two seconds further adrift.
“I had to play with the peloton. They could come back at any moment,” the 23-year-old Meyer told reporters. “With 30km to go, we gave everything, especially my team mate Matt Wilson who was fantastic. The main goal was to win the stage. For the overall rankings, we’ll see but my lead on Goss is still weak.” Seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong finished 41 seconds off the pace and now sits in 81st position in his last race overseas before retirement. Britain’s Mark Cavendish continued to struggle. Two days after he was involved in a serious crash he arrived one minute off the leaders.
Armstrong confident of being ‘vindicated’: Lance Armstrong said Friday he is confident of being vindicated following the most recent report to focus the doping spotlight on the Tour de France icon.
Armstrong is the subject of a federal investigation in the United States after allegations of doping levelled by disgraced former teammate Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title for using illegal substances. A report by Sports Illustrated magazine, published this week, offered new evidence that claims to substantiate Landis’s accusations.
