"I'd love it for it to be this year" - Luke Plapp dreams of emulating Richie Porte with Tour Down Under success

The 2025 World Tour season gets kicked off in Australia on the 21st of January. One of the leading home hopes comes in the form of three-time Australian road racing champion and Team Jayco AlUla leader, Luke Plapp.

"It's definitely a race that, by the end of my career, I want to have on my palmares and be able to win," says Plapp in quotes collected by Cycling News ahead of his third appearance at his home stage race. "I'd love it for it to be this year. If I could clean up Willunga and Richie Porte will be there, it would be a full circle moment."

That mention of Richie Porte is not one thrown out casually by Plapp either. The Aussie hero took the Tour Down Under victory on two occasions in his career, something Plapp is keen to emulate, starting this week. "Hopefully one day I can follow in his footsteps," he says, noting in particular Porte's penchant for victories atop Willunga Hill. "I'm always going to target Willunga, I really want to go well there, so we'll see what comes from. But I'm really looking forward to that."

"I think it's one of the hardest courses the Tour Down Under’s probably ever seen, which I think is right up my alley," Plapp continues, eyeing up stage 3 in particular. “It's hard, it's really, really hard. I think that's going to be the most decisive stage of the race. I think the lead into that with the descent that goes through Basket Range into that climb, and that climb, I think, is harder than Willunga. I think you can definitely lose the race on that descent and into the climb as well so I'm definitely expecting GC to sort of be played out there. I think the the 10 riders or so that are in the finish of that stage are the ones that are going to be sprinting it out on Willunga for the win, but I think that's where the GC will be set up.”

Plapp is well aware that he's unlikely to have things all his own way, with big names such as Geraint Thomas, Jay Vine and defending champion Stephen Williams among the field. "Also you can't forget the new neo-pros that you haven't heard of, or it's their first race. You only have to remember back to Isaac Del Toro last year, who no one knew who he was, and he took the race by the scruff of the neck," he concludes. "There's always going to be someone that pops up."