Meyer rides away with victory

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Garmin-Transitions’ Cameron Meyer flew home from the Australian Track National Championships to contest the Perth Criteriums and couldn’t be stopped once he arrived. Meyer held off Daniel Braunstein (Budget Forklifts) to the line in the final sprint.

Anthony Giacoppo managed to escape from the bunch in the last lap and hold of the fast finishing Graeme Brown.

The open men’s event lined up in the growing darkness on the streets of Joondalup. The pressure was on as soon as the neutral lap was over with the first 10 minutes seeing multiple attacks before Meyer put in a significant attack. Braunstein followed Meyer as they managed to put a small gap in the field.

Several riders tried unsuccessfully to cross to the break but they were continuously checked by Meyer’s brother and teammate Travis. The break managed to open the gap further each lap with Meyer and Braunstein posting the three fastest laps of the race as the break away solidified.

Several of the Plan B riders including Adam Semple attempted to rally the chase group with Brown but were unsuccessful as Travis Meyer and the Budget Forklifts team kept the group together. Not even a stray kangaroo could slow down the break away.

Meyer led the sprint out of the darkness with Branstein chasing. The class of the world points race champion was too great winning by five bike lengths.

The first support race saw a significant break form of eight riders form with a strong presence from the Garda Bike Hotel/Eddy Hollands Bicycle Services team. The team rode well and set up the win for Depiazzi, the 2009 winner of the support series.

The second support race started quickly with many attacks in the first part of the race. All were unsuccessful until Black Dog Racing team member Matt Irvine broke away solo in what looked like was going to be a repeat solo win from Stage 4 in the 2009 Series. The peloton rallied and caught him with only a few laps remaining. Fenton Moran outclassed the field to win the sprint from ECU rider Julian Lowe. Irvine managed to find some more legs for the sprint and finished third.

Results