Cameron Meyer’s cycling career to enter new Dimension at Tour Down Under

FORMER winner Cameron Meyer is expected to return to the Tour Down Under next month as leader of his new team, Dimension Data.

Stage 2 Jayco HeraldSun Tour. Mt Macedon to Bendigo. Cameron Meyer of the Orica GreenEdge team outsprints Joe Cooper of the Avanti Racing team to win the 2nd stage . Pic: Michael Klein

FORMER winner Cameron Meyer is expected to return to the Tour Down Under next month as leader of his new team, Dimension Data.

The 27-year-old is looking to reboot his career, having switched teams in the off-season from Orica-GreenEDGE where he had spent the past four years.

Dimension Data — previously known as MTN-Qhubeka — became the first African team to race the Tour de France this year (thanks to a wildcard entry) and has recruited superstar sprinter Mark Cavendish for 2016.

While Cavendish races the Hong Kong track world cup, Meyer is set to lead the team at the TDU from January 16-24, as it makes its official WorldTour debut in Adelaide.

Meyer won the race in 2011 as a 23-year-old when he produced a breakaway victory into Strathalbyn, but his career failed to really take off in the past four years with Orica-GreenEDGE.

The Western Australian has been racing on the track in the off-season, including at the national madison championships with Leigh Howard in Melbourne, but is expected to shift his focus back to the road for the Australian titles in Ballarat from January 6.

“Joining this team it is a fresh start and it’s something new, which is really good coming off a season where, for my level, I wasn’t happy with the results that I achieved and not what I wanted now,” Meyer told website cyclingnews.com.

“Being on a team with so few Australians we get a chance to represent well at the start of the season. I feel like I’ve got good form and, hopefully, I can put on a good showing to kick off the season.”

Meyer will be joined at Dimension Data by compatriots Mark Renshaw and Nathan Haas next season.

This year he won the Herald Sun Tour and rode the Vuelta a Espana but his best season with OGE was in 2013 when he finished the Tour de France, won the time trial at the Tour de Suisse and was crowned Oceania road race champion.

The Australian cycling season officially begins in Geelong on Friday with the first of four stages in the Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic.

Stages will also be held in Portarlington and Williamstown until January 4 and will feature Orica-GreenEDGE and Drapac taking on leading domestic teams Avanti and Budget Forklifts.

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Originally published as Cameron Meyer’s cycling career to enter new Dimension at Tour Down Under