The Western Australian 24-year-old again displayed his outstanding talent on Thursday night when he staged a daring solo breakaway to win the men’s elite criterium in the Mars Cycling Australian Road National Championships in Ballarat.

The gold medal win confirmed the Orica-GreenEDGE rider as one of the favourites for tomorrow’s world class 195.6 kilometre road race on a testing revamped course at Buninyong.

Meyer made a big solo break in the road race a year ago, but cracked and did not finish.

Three months later, he won the points race at the world track championships in Melbourne, but soon after Meyer pulled out of the Olympic track squad.

Meyer said the decision to take the points and madison events out of the program swayed his thinking.

“It was very hard for me to make a decision in which pathway to go,” he said.

“Maybe in a couple of years’ time, if it came back in Rio, I may be back (on the track).”

His criterium win fuels the excitement in the sport about what Meyer might achieve on the road in the years ahead.

He has already ridden in the Giro d’Italia and in a year or two he will undoubtedly start at the Tour de France.

“Watching that, the first word that springs to mind is ‘potential’,” Orica-GreenEDGE manager Shayne Bannan said after the display on Sturt Street.

“(He’s) very still very young – Cam would like to develop into a GC rider and that does take time.”

Meyer will be a key player tomorrow as GreenEDGE attempts to complete a clean sweep of the elite men’s championships, with Luke Durbridge having captured gold in Wednesday’s time trial.

GreenEDGE again has a powerful line-up, headed up by reigning champion Simon Gerrans, Matthew Goss, Stuart O’Grady, Leigh Howard, Michael Matthews, Baden Cooke, and Durbridge – some of the biggest names in world cycling.

Ballarat’s Pat Shaw and Jay Bourke will lead the hometown charge.

The championships continue today with the under-23 men’s road race (137.2 kilometres) at Buninyong followed by the elite/under-23 women’s road race (106.6 kilometres).