Patrick Eddy did not arrive in Perth as a favourite. He left as the Australian champion. Just days into his first season with continental Team Brennan, the former WorldTour rider produced a perfectly judged sprint to deny Luke Plapp and flip the race on its head in the final few hundred metres.
Team Jayco AlUla looked to have the race locked down when defending champion Luke Durbridge went clear after almost 40 kilometres in the lead. But a late surge from Eddy, Plapp and Brennan teammate Oliver Bleddyn dragged him back inside the final kilometre. From there, Eddy played it cold. He waited, followed, then launched off Plapp’s wheel to seal the elite men’s title.
“I don’t believe that,” Eddy said at the finish. “When the break got that gap, I thought it was done and we were just riding a bit of a Grand Fondo out there. But it all came back together in the last 40 minutes, and I thought I was a bit cooked being outnumbered by the Jayco boys, but… It hasn’t sunk in yet.”
From WorldTour exit to national champion
Eddy rode in the WorldTour with Picnic PostNL until the end of 2025, before stepping down to Team Brennan for 2026. Within days of the new season, he has already shown his level has not dropped.
He admitted he thought Jayco had the race won. “I thought they had it with the breakaway, I thought Durbo was going to do it again, but Saundo and Ollie were amazing in that last hour and all day. We’re definitely the new kids on the block,” he said of teammates Tristan Saunders and Oliver Bleddyn.
Behind Eddy and Plapp, Oscar Chamberlain swept through late to take third as Jayco, after controlling much of the finale, were left with medals rather than the title they had set out to win.
Read also
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
claps 0visitors 0
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Well I just watched this and I thought it was great! If you’re a Pogi fan, like me, you’ll enjoy it. Even if you’re not necessarily a Pogi fan I still recommend it. There’s plenty of new stuff I didn’t know about and I’m a Pogi-maniac! Nice interviews with Pogi & Matteo Trentin too.Lozza14-11-2026
- Well I just watched this and I thought it was great! If you’re a Pogi fan, like me, you’ll enjoy it. Even if you’re not necessarily a Pogi fan I still recommend it. There’s plenty of new stuff I didn’t know about and I’m a Pogi-maniac! Nice interviews with Pogi & Matteo Trentin too. So Zonnewotsit can stick it!Lozza14-11-2026
- Who’s gifting grand tours at UAE? Defo not Pogi! Stage wins maybe.Lozza13-11-2026
- Sepp Kuss Vuelta 2023.Lozza13-11-2026
- they have no expertise with classics, they have no leaders in classics. the classics is dominated by the few Fuori Classe riders where other riders are left with scraps. the Hiring , the salaries dont make sense at all. Same problem as Man Utd. over paid players, egos, very little performanceabstractengineer13-11-2026
- Contract year means you gotta win, at least collect UCI points, helping be damnedabstractengineer13-11-2026
- Arensman is their best rider and he is paid very less in comparisonabstractengineer13-11-2026
- I'm not trying to argue with you but if you didn't see Del Toro struggling in the Tour I'll pay for some glasses for you lol. He struggled so much that Tadej missed winning stage 15, Tadej also dropped the pace along some stages to help Del Toro hold onto the podium. Now he may have been sick, that is a possibility, but he definitely struggled. You have a nice weekend as well brother.awp13-11-2026
- Im not copmaring him to jonas palmares...but current level of power and again like you even pointed out 19sec difference and on other ocassions del toro dropping him. Its evidently their close and based on both their different trajectory its self explanatory...where we are next year.And Del Toro didnt struggle if getting a podium in his first TDF at 22 year old is struggling you sure dont know how to be objective haha. But have a good weekend this is so dumb to discuss as its not even a discussin in reality as facts speak for themselves of what were actually speaking of - and self explanatory.miguel13-11-2026
- fingers crossed. my son has a poster of wout and mathieu battling each other at the beach at ostend up in his room. would be great to see them again there!Ketterechts13-11-2026
Loading
2 Comments