Australian champion faces solo title defence in stacked field
Luke Plapp (Ineos Grenadiers) enjoying spending his first year as a professional in the green and gold jersey of the Australian Road Champion(Image credit: Getty Images Sport)
Luke Plapp clearly relished the opportunity to launch into his first year as a professional with the jersey of the Australian national champion on his back and he is not willing to hand it over easily when he lines up to chase the title again on a hot Sunday afternoon in Buninyong. The road race had been a clear target in the 22-year-old’s Australian summer, but plans don’t always run smoothly.
”I was feeling really good and confident just before Christmas," Plapp told Cyclingnews earlier this week. But then came what he described as "a pretty nasty crash in training."
That crash, Plapp said, left him with a lot of skin off, but could have been a lot worse. It kept him off the bike for a week shortly before the season was soon to begin with the Citroën Bay Crits. There he worked hard to control the field and keep the pace high to discourage attacks in support of his teammate, Brenton Jones. It worked, with his teammate heading into retirement with a final treasured victory, but it also did more than that.
“The Bay Crits was sort of to see where I was at and try to cram some last minute training in,” said Plapp, who enjoyed the proximity of the Great Ocean Road for pre-race efforts before the criterium racing in Geelong. “But I'm really looking forward to Nationals. I think potentially I'll be a little bit underdone just because of that crash but hopefully for the Tour Down Under and UAE Tour, I'll be a bit better.
Plapp will be facing up to a stacked field at Nationals, however and with no teammates to help him out - will 'OK' be good enough?
“It's gonna be a brilliant race,” said Plapp. “To be honest, I've been racking my brain for the last two weeks on how to win or even how the race might go. There's everyone there, which is so amazing, and I wish I was a spectator and just watching the race unfold as it is going to be quite amazing to see.”
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The two years where entry to Australia was hindered and international races in the nation were cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic means that the riders who were absent as a result have all come flooding back after two years of missed opportunity.
That has presented an interesting challenge, as its a course itself that leads to a degree of unpredictability as the climb of Mount Buninyong Road on every one of the 16 laps of the 185.6km race provides a serious challenge for the sprinters, but that doesn’t make it a shoe-in for the climbers either as it's not hard enough or long enough an ascent to stretch the gaps too far ahead of the descent and technical section through Federation University that brings the race towards the finishing straight.
The history of the event makes it clear that, depending on how it is raced, it can lean toward one type of rider or the other – one year Richie Porte and Cadel Evans were on the podium and the next it was Heinrich Haussler and Caleb Ewan.
In 2023 with a top sprinter like Caleb Ewan (Lotto Dstny) on the start list, and with the power of Michael Matthews and Jayco Alula, plus climbers like Ben O’Connor (AG2R Citroën) and Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), there are so many ways it could play out.
“I'm not sure where I fit in that either. I'm definitely not climbing like, Benno, and I can't sprint like a Caleb or Bling so it will be a really interesting race to see how it pans out,” said Plapp, also pointing to the domestic teams and their ability to take it up to Jayco AlUla “by popping with their numbers”.
“I really hope that the domestic guys take it up to the Jayco, especially as that will help me out, too," he added, with a grin evident in his tone.
And just to throw in another variable, it's going to be hot, with the temperature forecast to head toward the mid 30s in Ballarat on Sunday. That could not only be a factor on the day of the road race, but also makes it particularly difficult for those that are hoping to back up for the time trial, which Plapp missed last year after being a close COVID-19 contact beforehand, but which he won in 2021 when he stepped out of the U23 ranks early to take on the elite field.
Time trial vs road race
Luke Plapp in time trial mode for Australia (Image credit: Getty Images)
The time trial has usually been held in the days before the criterium and road race but this year the elite races against the clock will play out on Tuesday January 10, leaving only one day clear to recover after the road races.
“I can't say I'm a massive fan of it or really see the sense in why they have done that,” Plapp said. It has, in some regards, left him with a choice to make.
“I'd love to keep the (road race) jersey, but I know how hard that road race is now and you just can't train for a time trial really if you plan to do that road race,” said Plapp. “You're going to be so fatigued (for the time trial) and I think it wouldn't matter how many times trial kilometres you'd done, it's who is going to recover the best and not have as much fatigue from that road race.
“I have focused on the road race and if you really wanted to have your best TT possible, you just wouldn't do that road race.”
Simone is a degree-qualified journalist that has accumulated decades of wide-ranging experience while working across a variety of leading media organisations. She joined Cyclingnews as a Production Editor at the start of the 2021 season and has now moved into the role of Australia Editor. Previously she worked as a freelance writer, Australian Editor at Ella CyclingTips and as a correspondent for Reuters and Bloomberg. Cycling was initially purely a leisure pursuit for Simone, who started out as a business journalist, but in 2015 her career focus also shifted to the sport.
