KEY POINTS:
Australian whizz-kid Travis Meyer took out the Wellington Classic tour yesterday with a sublime display of power and endurance.
Meyer, 18, won two stages and finished second in three others to take the tour's individual title off Kiwi Hayden Roulston.
He also won the under-23 title and the team title with his South Australia.com AIS colleagues, while finishing third overall in the sprint classification.
Meyer clocked 14 hours, 27 minutes, nine seconds over the 580km tour to beat Robin Reid of the Delmaine Foods team by 1min 51sec with Australian David Pell of the Savings and Loans team 5min 13sec behind.
Meyer, who had taken charge of the yellow jersey on the second day, showed what a sensational all-round talent he is in his debut at open level.
Before arriving in Wellington, as a junior he had not been allowed to race more than 120km in one stage.
The rider who has won five world junior track titles in the past two years emerged victorious in the punishing 185km hilly third stage and in yesterday's seventh and final stage, lapping all but six of the 70-strong field.
It took Meyer just 35min into the hour-long stage to catch the main bunch, which included defending champion Roulston.
Usually in a criterium, lapped riders would be called off but this would have left just seven riders racing with 20min remaining so officials decided to let them stay on until the hour mark.
But sitting among the main bunch with a lap over them was not enough for Meyer.
After catching his breath he set off after the remaining six riders and might well have caught them if he had not run out of time.
"It's unbelievable to have won a great, hard tour and to beat some of these guys in my first major one is just fantastic," Meyer said.
Roulston said after winning the fourth stage in Masterton his motivation was to show he was still the best rider in the field.
A poor third stage destroyed his hopes of winning the tour for a third consecutive time.
Meyer explained he was not trying to prove a point after finishing second by 19sec to Roulston who picked up his second stage win in yesterday morning's 12km time trial.
Rather, he was trying to help a teammate finish third overall and the criterium circuit in central Wellington had suited him.
"I just just wanted to break the field up a bit because I needed to make it a tough race so Adam could sneak into third overall," Meyer said. "I certainly won't say I am stronger than Hayden Roulston - he is an exceptional bike rider."
Pell won the sprint classification and Australian John Ebeling won the king of the mountains jersey.
- NZPA
