National championships win has a special meaning for Luke Plapp: "It’s my favourite event in the world to be honest"
Cycling
The road season officially opened up today and as usual it's in Australia that the World Tour riders put on their bib numbers for the first time to compete. At the Australian nationals, Luke Plapp has conquered the time-trial title for the third time in his career.
Winner of this very race back in 2021, and then again in 2024, it comes as little surprise that the Team Jayco AlUla rider succeeded. In the fast course taking place in Perth there was little competition except for Jay Vine who has been extremely impressive against the clock last year. But Plapp won the race, finishing the 38-kilometer course in 8 seconds less than his rival.
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“I’m super happy with that. It’s my favourite event in the world to be honest, the national time trial championships. I love training over the summer here in Australia for this event and it’s super special to go back-to-back with the team," Plapp said in a post-race interview.
It is very much the perfect way for the Australian team to open up the season, they have also filled the rest of the spots in the Top5 and into this Sunday's road race, it is expected that there will be a similar outcome - although perhaps with a different rider.
Jayco is having a new set of colours this year and also a new big leader in home rider Ben O'Connor. Yesterday, it was revealed that Caleb Ewan however is not in the team's page and it is being rumoured that his departure may be announced soon.
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BACK-TO-BACK 👑👑
— AusCycling (@AusCycling) January 9, 2025
Luke Plapp defends his national time trial crown with a blistering speed of 50km/h 🔥@GreenEDGEteam#RoadNats25 pic.twitter.com/JFwFbeXyRr
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- He’s good at messing up his WCs ;-)Mistermaumau09-01-2025
- so, tom could dedicate himself to CX all year, every year and probably never beat mathieu in a cyclocross world championship, barring a crash or injury or whatever. does pidcock have that kind of advantage over van der poel in XCO, or is that a gap mvdp can close even at this latter stage of mathieu’s career?OCexile09-01-2025
- Yes, I also think teams should start re-evaluating their TdF commitments according to rider goals. As long as a rider doesn’t have any realistic chance of sone form of glory, don’t force them just to end up with a forgettable result, give someone else on the team the experience and chance to prove themselves and let your better rider focus on goals they CAN aim for. You really get the feeling some riders are being forced to pretend they can achieve something when they know they haven’t got a hope.Mistermaumau09-01-2025
- It’s very difficult to say now since he’s hardly ever raced over the last 5-6 years. Had he continued when he was good at it he’d most definitely have won it at some point, the type of course playing a decisive role. But business dictated he should focus more on road racing. Much as he tries, you can’t be everywhere at once and win it all and there are only so many years to a career.Mistermaumau09-01-2025
- I hope for the sake of others she doesn’t become an expert ;-) As OCexile has pointed out she’s capable enough of winning already. The others won’t be as tolerant of her as the men are of Pog if she starts sweeping everything up.Mistermaumau09-01-2025
- i’m ashamed to admit that i really don’t know enough about mtb and xco to know mathieu’s chances of winning world’s if he dedicates his season to that discipline once the spring classics are over. anyone want to take a moment to enlighten me i’d appreciate your take on it.OCexile09-01-2025
- So he goes to FDJ lol.Suipedali09-01-2025
- Cannot blaim him with those 2 super humansspock12309-01-2025
- Hopefully she won't be a male goat...vappaxbipmv09-01-2025
- Can you name a few others to see of there's a rule? Also, he wasn't an indoor cyclist, he was a normal cyclist that also did Zwift and that's how he got his chance at the highest levelvappaxbipmv09-01-2025