'A couple of good bits of luck away from an amazing year' – Luke Plapp wards off travails of 2024 to find inspiration ahead

Luke Plapp couldn’t have started 2024 off on a better path when he won the dual Australian titles in January but the smooth sailing didn’t continue. Crashes at important junctures and illness curtailed the run, but the 23-year-old is far from discouraged as even with the obstacles, the progress continued.

In the first four months of the year there was a sixth overall at Paris-Nice and a second on stage 4 of the race plus a Tour de Romandie stage podium to add to the national titles he scooped up in January. Then at his Giro d’Italia debut in May there was a targeted day in the white jersey, a stage podium and three other finishes within the top seven despite the rider being stymied by illness during the second Grand Tour of his career.

What’s more, even when it came to the crash in the wet conditions at the Olympic Games in July, there were encouraging signs that the focussed work on his time trialling had paid off, with the rider delivering the fourth best result on the opening 13.1km timing point before he slid into the barrier in the rain.

That’s why, as Plapp sits surveying the year straight after the presentations for day one of his home region race – the Tour of Bright – the assessment is far more in tune with the surrounding buoyant atmosphere at the Bright Brewery than may be expected from a year where two key objectives fell foul of crashes, another was curtailed by illness and then the end of year come-back race of the Tour of Guangxi was also cut short by an impossible to avoid mass tumble.

“On paper, it doesn’t look like I’ve developed that much but I mean, at the Giro, I was right up there for ten days in the white jersey, and up there on GC, and then I got sick,” Plapp told Cycling News. “And then again, the Olympics, I was right up there and then crashed.

“Paris-Nice was the only race where the results were there on paper but I really feel physically my body changed, and we’re only a couple of good bits of luck away from an amazing year.”

Things may not have turned out exactly the way Plapp was hoping when a year ago he sat in the middle of his bush block, in front of a brand-appropriate Jayco caravan, discussing with Cycling News what he was hoping for from the 2024 season with his new team. In terms of specifics the key focus was a second Grand Tour, the Giro d’Italia, the Olympic Games and the World Championships – which he missed completely given the injuries he suffered in Paris – though the biggest goal was always trying to move further along the path to “being able to discover my full potential”.

That is perhaps, what makes it easier for the time trial capable rider with developing general classification credentials to focus on progress and not purely the results – not that there aren’t quite a few impressive numbers on the sheet anyway. Plapp may have had the least race days of his career since he turned professional in 2022 but even then the tally included two UCI wins at the National Championships plus five podium placings and 11 results in the top ten of WorldTour events.

“I know, my coach knows and the team know how much of a step forward the year was. It’s just not there on paper for others to see, but it does give a lot of confidence moving forward,” said Plapp. “We did make a shift and that’s why it’s so motivating for next year because within the team, we know it was in the right direction and we can just give that another crack next year. And try to have some luck, I guess.”

The build continues

The work towards that new season has started in the high country of Victoria once again for Plapp rather than in Spain where a number of his teammates have just gathered for a training camp. Observing Plapp in this mountainous and wilderness-rich patch of north-east Victoria brings the well-worn saying ‘there is no place like home’ to mind. It of course doesn’t hurt for a cyclist on the build toward another season of big goals when home is surrounded by ideal training roads and mountainous terrain, including Mt Buffalo which Plapp likes to, only half-jokingly, refer to as “the greatest mountain in the world”. 

“It’s just a completely different lifestyle and it allows me to switch off,” said Plapp. “I find in Europe once you finish training, you’re still a cyclist, and here I can mow my lawn. I can just really switch off and that’s what I love about coming back here. Mentally, I feel like it refreshes me more than anything – I’m a happy person, which makes me a better cyclist.

“I feel like I can come back here and train better than I do anywhere in the world, it refreshes me so that wherever I go next, I’m ready.”

He is clearly in his element as he pins a number on at the The Tour of Bright, more than just a disinterested competitor at the Victorian Road Series race on his home roads which punches above its classification. WorldTour hopefuls get the chance to mix with some of the riders who have already made it as they get on board for the chance to add a little something extra to their off-season training build and support the local cycling community in the process. 

The Tour of Bright general classification win was Plapp’s once again but he seemed more than content to share the spoils at the race. He was quick to congratulate and sing the praises of many of the up-and-coming riders around him, including 19-year-old mountain biker Jack Ward (BridgeLane) who instantly ignited a flare of interest when he won on the summit finishes of stage 1 and 3. 

Plapp, after all, was in the shoes of the aspiring professional cyclists not so long ago, as he made a mark at the domestic level Santos Festival of Cycling in 2020 while riding alongside Richie Porte. His results helped launch him onto the WorldTour and this year as he trains on the roads around Bright, he is working toward another round of racing in South Australia that he hopes will send him even further up the ranks within the top tier in 2025.

It’s been a very different lead-in to the new season for Plapp, as the abdominal surgery that followed Plapp’s nasty crash in Paris meant he was off the bike altogether for six weeks, then he used a Tour of Guangxi return in October as a target to help keep him motivated, though unfortunately, a mass crash halted his return on the third day – right before things got interesting with the climbing stages. That left Plapp with just two full days of international racing since early July, however, the training build has continued with an eye to the Australian summer.

“I’d like to have one of them”

First on the agenda is the Australian Road National Championships from January 8-12, where Plapp is not only the defending time trial champion but has also swept up the last three road race titles. A change in venue from Buninyong in Victoria to Perth, Western Australia and a different course may make a fourth title defence a trickier proposition.

“Buninyong has suited me so well, because, I think the strongest rider has won on that course whereas I think this year it’s going to be a lot more tactical,” said Plapp.

Still, the rider who has so far worn the Australian road race jersey for his entire career is certainly not going to give it up lightly.

“Basically, I’d like to have one of them,” Plapp said. “If I can’t have the roadie again, the TT would be nice but if we can make it with someone from the team, that’d be just as good.”

The big early season goal for Plapp falls a little later in January, when the first WorldTour race of the season kicks off in South Australia at the Santos Tour Down Under, where he hopes to turn the familiar terrain around Adelaide to his advantage. 

“TDU is a massive target for me. I haven’t had much of a break since post-Olympics, so I’ve been going for a while, and that’s with the eyes on the TDU to really try to get a good result there,” said Plapp. “That’s been, what’s really been driving me and the big focus early on.”

Last year Jayco-AlUla entered the race with Plapp obviously in flying form given his dual national titles but also with Simon Yates as a key GC card, though Plapp’s crash on stage 3 ultimately took him out of the event and Yates’ seventh overall left them on the back foot. Plapp, however, will be heading straight over from the Perth Nationals for course reconnaissance to make sure he is well prepared to address that “bit of unfinished business.”

After the Tour Down Under, the road is less certain, with some GrandTour route details still to come, but what’s certain is that after March or so it will be time for a bit of a break before once again setting off to try and leap up a few more steps on the development path.

“I still haven’t won a race in Europe so that’d be a nice little goal for next year at least,” said Plapp. “I’ve got a couple of top fives, top 10s in one week World Tour races already, so I’d like to keep ticking them off but I think a top 10 [overall] in a Grand Tour is the next big goal. And if that happens next year, then the next year you try to go better than that.”

Plapp said he was inspired by Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) when he looked at the road ahead for his GC aspirations, a rider who – like him – came from the track, had Olympic aspirations and success but then over time developed into a Tour de France winning GC rider. 

“It’s a matter of knowing it’s not necessarily going to happen at 25 – or 22 like it has for some of these guys – and knowing that it could take me some time, and that’s fine,” said Plapp.

“It’s just ticking it along and trying to progress.”