Jayco AlUla manager Matt White confides about the team's latest addition: "We honestly don’t know how good Luke can be"

Luke Plapp’s move from Ineos Grenadiers to Jayco AlUla on a four-year deal is a major coup for the Australian team and sports director Matt White believes that the young rider has huge untapped potential.

"We honestly don’t know how good Luke can be. He’s two years into his pro career and he’s been thrown around in terms of race programmes. He’s a long way from fulfilling his potential, that’s for sure, but he’ll have more freedom here when it comes to leading us at certain times, even though he’s still young. You don’t have the results at his age without talent. It’s our challenge to now develop him into the best rider that he can be," White told GCN.

"He’s still working out what type of rider he is but we know he can be world-class in the time trial. That’s his special talent but how far we can develop him in terms of a GC rider, we’ll find out over the next few years," said White.

"When you look at building his race programme, some time with Simon and some of the older guys will be really beneficial. You don’t reach the level that Simon has had over the last ten years without being consistent and that comes down to day-to-day work over long stretches of time. We’ve got some blocks where Luke and Simon will do some racing together and that will be a valuable experience for him. He’ll be doing a Grand Tour next year and those details are being figured out as we speak," White adds.