Meyer wins stage 4 of Tour Down Under

ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — Multiple world champion Cameron Meyer of Australia seized the overall lead in the Tour Down Under cycle race after winning Friday's fourth of six stages in an audacious breakaway.

Meyer of the U.S.-based Garmin-Cervelo team, was among a group of six riders, later dwindling to four, which attacked about 33 kilometers (20 miles) into the 124-kilometer (76-mile) stage from Norwood to Strathalbyn, and stayed away from the peleton.

The four remaining riders still led by 33 seconds with 2 kilometers remaining, and Meyer sprinted strongly to win the stage from Belgian riders Thomas De Gendt and Laurens Ten Dam of the Netherlands.

His win broke the stranglehold on the race held by the sprinters, providing its fourth overall leader in as many stages.

Meyer was credited with an accumulated time for four stages of 12 hours, 54 minutes, 30 seconds to lead on general classification by 10 seconds from Ten Dam with a further two seconds back to the overnight leader, Australian Matthew Goss of U.S. team HTC-Highroad.

Meyer began the stage in 46th place and 21second behinds Goss, but transformed the race's overall standings with bold tactical riding and effective co-operation among the breakaway group, which included his compatriot and Garmin teammate Matthew Wilson.

Goss came in fifth on the stage and at the head of a peleton that was 24 seconds behind Meyer, who won gold medals in the madison, points race and team pursuit at last year's world championships.

Ten Dam of the Rabobank team improved from 40th place overnight on general classification, pushing back Goss to third, Robbie McEwen of Lance Armstrong's Radio Shack team to fourth and German defending champion Andre Greipel to fifth, 16 seconds behind the overall leader.

Armstrong came in 85th of 131 riders, 41 seconds behind Meyer and was officially 81st overall after four stages, 3 minutes, 56 seconds down on the race leader in his last professional race outside the United States.

British sprint star Mark Cavendish, a winner of 15 stages on the Tour de France, lost a further minute to the race lead in finishing 98th Friday and lies 130th overall — 17 minutes, 20 seconds off the lead.

Meyer praised the hard work and co-operation of the leading group for his first stage victory in the Tour Down Under, the first event of the 2011 WorldTour season.

The group went to the lead about a third of the way into the stage, after riders have snaked their way out of Adelaide up the steep and heavily-wooded Gorges road into rolling hills southeast of the city.

The race route wound through the townships of Kersbrook and Forreston, Gumeracha and Lobethal, Oakbank, Balhanna and Hahndorf through a series of steady climbs and steep descents. In small towns where sandstone cottages, stores and balconied pubs pressed close to the roadway, fans lined main streets and waited hours for the peleton to pass.

McEwen won the first intermediate sprint to secure time bonuses which lifted him into second place overall behind Goss and ahead of Greipel, but the breakaway went on to change the complexion of the stage and race.

"It's a little bit of a shock I guess to pull off a stage in the Tour, it's obviously renowned for the sprinters and they've had control of the race so far," Meyer said. "But I went out there to give it a go and our plan today was to put a couple in the break. We had the strength to hold it off"

The group never led by more than 2-1/2 minutes, but kept a reasonable margin over the chasing peleton until the final 2 kilometers when the bunch, at full pace, couldn't close the gap.

McEwen was among the sprinters who expected the peleton to work together to reel in the breakaway and set up the finish down the long main street of Strathalbyn for himself, Goss, Greipel and the race's other sprint stars. He said a lack of organization and co-operation among the bunch meant the breakaway could not be caught.

"Normally we can bring back a break easily, but here with the short stages, it isn't so easy" McEwen said. "We're all in the same situation, all the teams of the sprinters wanted to win the race today but that's what we failed to do as a group.

We didn't have it under control, but my motivation isn't gone ... That was a hard ride today and everyone is in the same situation."