The 2011 Milan-Sanremo champion Matt Goss has had a slight setback to his preparation for the 2012 edition of the race, with the Australian withdrawing from Tirreno-Adriatico before the end of the race.
Goss, who is regarded as a sprinter but also one who is able to handle tough courses, has become ill during the Italian stage race.
“I’m obviously not happy pulling out, but I think it’s the best decision to play it safe leading up to Milano-Sanremo,” he said. “I’ve gotten some really good racing under the belt here and I think I’ll be ready to go hard again after having shaken this cold in a few days.”
Goss has had a quieter start to the 2012 season than last year. Twelve months ago he had already taken stages in the Tour of Oman, Paris-Nice and the Santos Tour Down Under as well as placing second overall in the latter.
This time round, his best result is sixth on stage three of Tirreno Adriatico, as well as being part of the winning squad in the team time trial.
However according to directeur sportif Matt White, there are no concerns about his shape. “Matt is going really well, and we don’t want to run any risks before the big one-day races coming up,” he insisted.
“In pulling him out of the race now, after two really hard days, we’ll still be able to count on him recovering fully for Milano-Sanremo and the other big Classics.”
Meanwhile the team has expressed its satisfaction with Cameron Meyer’s performance in the Italian stage race.
He started yesterday’s toughest stage third overall, thirteen seconds off the race lead of Chris Horner (RadioShack Nissan). He was dropped four kilometres from the summit of the final climb of Prati di Tivo, crossing the line sixteenth, one minute 22 seconds behind the winner Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas Cannondale).
That dropped him down the general classification, but he succeeded in remaining in the top ten. He will start today’s penultimate stage tenth overall.
“I turned myself inside out today to stay up there with the strongest guys on the last climb,” he said yesterday. “I gave everything I could to hang on. After I got dropped from the front group, I fought the best I could to reduce the damage. The last climb was super tough. I’m happy with my performance today.”
White believes he can improve his general classification position on the final day. “Cam can possibly move up a couple of spots on the time trial,” he stated. “He’s within 20 seconds of three guys on the overall and only 1:23 off the race lead. A nine kilometre time trial limits how much time you can gain or lose, so I don’t expect that he can ride himself onto the podium, but he certainly has the possibility of moving up places on the final day.”