Cameron Meyer to lead Team Orica-GreenEdge at its Le Tour de Langkawi debut
After an outstanding debut World Tour season, Team Orica-GreenEdge is all set to begin the 2013 year at the Tour de Langkawi.
"As the first ProTeam from Oceania, they perfectly fit into our event," said Tour CEO Emir Abdul Jalal.
"We understand that they won’t only come to participate but they are putting together a strong team for winning the overall classification and a few stages," he concluded.
Cameron Meyer will lead the six-man Australian team at the Le Tour de Langkawi 2013 scheduled from 21 February-2 March.
Meyer will be accompanied by his younger brother and the former Australian National Road Champion Travis Meyer.
Luke Durbridge will also support the Meyer brothers at the 1,467.9 kilometre race in order to fine-tune his form ahead of some of the major goals of the season.
Durbridge is hopeful to mark a Grand Tour debut this year and the reduced 162.7 kilometre opening stage of the race is an ideal opportunity for the secure a stage early on the race.
Kiwi rider, Sam Bewley is also included in the six-man squad along with Aidis Kruopis and Pieter Weening to form a fully balanced squad for this year’s Team Orica-GreenEdge Le Tour de Langkawi line-up.
Team General Manager Shayne Bannan is happy with the team’s performance from the first season and is hopeful that his side continuous its winning momentum in the season ahead.
A total number of 22 teams will participate at the race and the inclusion of three Professional teams, Team Orica-GreenEdge, Team Astana and Team Garmin-Sharp has been confirmed by the race organisers.
"That's where our connection with the Mapei team and their training center in Italy started," said Bannan.
"Our common history is a pretty long one," he added.
The Australian team managed to claim the sixth overall position after the UCI World Tour team’s rankings as of 2012.
It manages to bag 920 UCI points throughout the season with Simon Gerrans making the maximum contribution of 390 pointss.
Michael Albasini (183 points), Matthew Goss (114 points), Luke Durbridge (56 points) and Svein Tuft (37 points) also helped the team in securing the sixth spot out of the 18 total World Tour teams.
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