Australian champion Luke Plapp brushes Euro TT ‘monkey off the back’ as pursues evolving Olympic dream

There is never any shortage of Australian cyclists dreaming of a mid-year escape to Europe where both the racing and weather are heating up, but Luke Plapp decided to do the reverse, as he recovered from a satisfying, although illness hit, showing at the Giro d’Italia and prepares for the next big goal of the season, the Olympic Games.

The target, which now sits in the rearview mirror, was all about building to the future, the one ahead, a goal from the past. Plapp went to his first Olympic Games in Tokyo on the track, walking away with a bronze in the Team Pursuit after a tumultuous qualifying saw one of his teammates, Alex Porter, hit the boards when a handlebar broke and the re-run time then left Australia out of contention for the gold medal, though they fought back to secure bronze.