For the last two years, while racing with Ineos Grenadiers at the Australian Road National Championships Luke Plapp may have been a lone ranger, but nevertheless, he has managed to claim the green and gold jersey in the road race both times.
This time, however, Plapp will be lining up with Jayco-AlUla – the team with strength in numbers that everyone will be looking at to control the race.
The only Australian WorldTour team undoubtedly would like to reassert its dominance when it comes to the regular turn around the Buninyong circuit, and now they have the winner of the last two editions within their fold.
The question is, will it be possible for Plapp to win again when, instead of aiming to break apart the defences of the dominant team, he now forms part of it?
“It’s going to be so different,” Plapp told Cyclingnews in the month leading into the race. “I think I’ve been so used to wrapping my head around tactics of how to win solo, and now I’ve got a lot of teammates to race with.”
Whether that turns out to be a boon or a burden for the rider as he lines up with the possibility of a third consecutive title in view, we will have to wait to find out on Sunday, January 7. Every rider on the Jayco-AIUIa team will be marked, as was Plapp when the defending champion struck out to take victory in 2023: but this time round, there is more than that marking element at play.
The team is taking such a strong group into the race that it may not necessarily be Plapp who gets the chance to take victory for his team.
“I think, first of all, we’ve just got to get the jersey in the team, and I think they’ve missed it for a couple of years – which I’ve loved them not having the jersey,” Plapp said with a grin, given he was the rider who shifted the title away from the team the past two years. “But yeah, I hope whether it’s me or whether it’s someone else, we really just need that jersey back in the team.
“It’ll also help show that that Australian heritage is back in and saying like, we’re back winning, we’re back at winning with Aussies. And I think, yeah, there just is a lot more pride at every race if you turn up in the Aussie team with the Aussie national jersey.”
Plapp isn’t the only rider making his debut on the Jayco-AlUla roster at the Australian Road National Championships, and he seemed enthused about the prospect that perhaps fellow new recruit Caleb Ewan – who has returned to the Australian team after five years with Lotto-Soudal – could be the one to…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…